[Prayer]
Today’s message is from Genesis chapter 42, the entire chapter. I want to remind you as always that the entire Bible is God’s word. Through it we know who God is, who we are and what God’s purpose for us is. God is our Creator and the Creator of all things. There is absolutely nothing more important than knowing God. So, also as always, I exhort you to not just read, but to study your Bible every day.
In this last part of Genesis, Joseph is the main player, at least humanly. Up to this point we have seen that Joseph, when he had been at home. had been his father’s favorite son, the son of Rachel, the woman whom Jacob really wanted to marry. Then he had been the one whom his brothers envied and despised and sold into slavery (even though they would really rather have killed him). (His brothers lied to Jacob and led him to believe that Joseph had been killed by wild animals even though they didn’t say so in so many words: “We found this blood-stained robe. Look at it and see if it isn’t your son’s.”)
Then Joseph had been the one who served as a slave in Potiphar’s household until he was thrown into prison. We also saw that in every situation the Lord was with Joseph. He was successful in everything he did. When he had served Potiphar, Potiphar saw that God was with Joseph and put him in charge of his entire household. Even in prison the Lord blessed Joseph and the Warden put him in charge of all the other prisoners.
Through all this Joseph trusted the Lord. Though he was distressed when his brothers sold him into slavery, he was not bitter and he did not hate them. In fact, as we’ll see, he loved them! He loved his enemies!
When Joseph was a slave in Potiphar’s house, he was not sullen or rebellious as some of us (myself included) might have been, but served Potiphar with all his heart. Potiphar didn’t have to worry about anything. Joseph took care of it all. In prison, although he was able to say that he had done nothing wrong to deserve prison, still, he took care of all the other prisoners. Joseph trusted the Lord. He had faith.
You know, Jesus told his disciples, “Be on your guard. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and comes back to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” (Luke 17:3, 4) Do you know what the apostles said to Jesus? (Are you ready for this?) They said, “Increase our faith.”
Today’s message is from Genesis chapter 42. Last week, in Genesis chapter 41, you remember Joseph went from the lowest position, from prison, to the highest position in Egypt. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt put him in charge of everything. He entrusted everything to him. Joseph had much greater authority than any prime minister or president has over any country today. Joseph was ruler over all of Egypt.
You know, I think (and most other people who have read this account also think) that in many way this is a picture of what Jesus did. Jesus emptied himself and made himself nothing. He took the form of a slave and was obedient to the point of death. When they reviled him, he did not revile back. When they beat him and crucified him, he did not threaten, but entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. Then God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above all names, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow—of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth—and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Joseph didn’t willingly become a slave as Jesus did, but he trusted God in everything. He entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. And God used this to bring about the salvation of many—salvation for Joseph’s family from starvation in Canaan and ultimately, salvation from sin and death and hell—and salvation for all of us also.
Let’s read today’s passage now—all of chapter 42. Let’s each read part of it as we’ve been doing. I’ll start.
[Read Genesis 42:1-38]
Look at verses 1 through 5. The famine was not just in Egypt, but also in all the surrounding countries. The possibility that Jacob and his children and grandchildren would starve to death was very real. (You see that God not only arranged to make Joseph the ruler of Egypt, but also, through the famine, he was arranging to bring Jacob’s brothers, and later all of their families, to Egypt.) The brothers were just staring at each other and at a loss as to what to do.
But Jacob knew what to do. They had money, but no food. Jacob had heard that there was food in Egypt. People were going to Egypt to buy food. So he sent all the brothers to Egypt to buy food—all the brothers except Benjamin. Benjamin was Joseph’s full brother, the only other son of Rachel. Rachel had died giving birth to Benjamin. Jacob had already lost Joseph. He didn’t want to risk losing Benjamin also. He would have died of sorrow. His gray head would have gone down to Sheol in sorrow. As we’ll see, the Lord made use of the fact that Jacob would not let Benjamin go.
Now let’s look at verses 5 through 17. Many people were coming to Egypt from Canaan to buy grain. I presume that Joseph would have delegated the job of selling the grain to others, but he was the one who was in charge of the whole operation (in fact, he was in charge of the whole country). But regardless of who else might have been selling the grain, the brothers came to Joseph. (Do you think Joseph might have been expecting them? Maybe he had described them to his deputies and told them to send anyone who looked like them to him.) When the brothers came to Joseph they bowed down with their faces to the ground before him. That’s what you would have done, too, if you had lived in that time and place and had come before someone in Joseph’s position on whom you depended for food. (And that’s a good way to approach God in this day and age and place, too. You depend on him for everything!)
Joseph recognized his brothers, but they didn’t recognize him. Why didn’t they recognize him? Well, it had been over 20 years. And we’ll see that, really, they thought he was dead. And, in any case, they certainly wouldn’t have thought that he would be the prime minister of Egypt even if he had survived slavery. They didn’t recognize Joseph, but Joseph did recogniz his brothers and spoke harshly to them. (He remembered his dreams, too—that the sheaves had bowed down to his sheaf and his brother were now bowing down to him.)
Joseph spoke harshly to the brothers and accused them of being spies. How would you have felt? They were before a man who had absolute authority. They might have been as good as dead. Spies are executed (the Rosenbergs, for example, for all of us old people who remember them).
The brothers protested that they were just there to buy grain and described their family: “We are all sons of one man. We are honest.” (Verses 10 and 11) (They were not honest when they sold Joseph into slavery, but now they said that they were honest.) Joseph insisted they were spies, that they were there to find out the weaknesses of the land. (Verse 12)
The brothers protested their innocence. They gave more details about their family: “We, your servants, were 12 brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The youngest is now with our father, and one is no longer living.”
But, nevertheless, Joseph gave his final verdict: “I have spoken: ‘You are spies!’” (Verse 14) Now they really were as good as dead!
But the final verdict wasn’t final. Joseph told them that they would be tested. The test was for them to produce their youngest brother. All but one of them would be locked up. The one that wasn’t locked up would be sent to get the youngest brother. If they produced their youngest brother, that would be proof that they weren’t spies.
Now all of this doesn’t really make sense, does it? How would producing their brother prove anything? And why would Joseph release one of them to go back and report if he thought they had been there to spy out the land? But in their situation, the brothers would not have reasoned all that out. (Would you have?) And I think Joseph also suspected the reason Benjamin wasn’t there, that Jacob wouldn’t let him come.
Joseph had them locked up for three days. He gave them time to think about their situation.
After three days Joseph changed the plan. He brought the brothers out and said he would lock up just one of them and let the others go to take the grain back to their family so they wouldn’t starve. If they brought back their brother, that would prove they were not spies. (How would that prove anything? They could have brought back anybody. But again, it wouldn’t have had to make sense to the brothers, and again, Joseph surely knew the reason Benjamin was not with them.)
Joseph also told them that he feared God. Maybe he did that to indicate that he was a man of his word. And maybe he did it to remind his brothers that there was a God and that he was to be feared. The brothers agreed to Joseph’s test. (What choice did they have?)
Now some of us may have been tempted to take advantage of this situation and get even with our brothers by putting a scare into these brothers even if we didn’t want to do any real harm. But that was not the case with Joseph. Joseph loved his brothers and wanted them to repent. He wanted them to fear the Lord and live.
Now listen while I read what the brothers said, verses 21 and 22:
21Then they said to each other, “It is plain that we are being punished for what we did to our brother. We saw his deep distress when he pleaded with us, but we would not listen. That is why this trouble has come to us.”
22But Reuben replied: “Didn’t I tell you not to harm the boy? But you wouldn’t listen. Now we must account for his blood!” (Genesis 42:21, 22)
You see, they were innocent of spying, but they were guilty of something else. They knew that they were guilty. After, at least, 20 years this is all coming back to them.
Some might have hardened their hearts, but these were God’s chosen people. I think they suffered for the whole 20 years with this guilt always in the back of their minds. It didn’t take them long to conclude that God was going to punish them for the evil that they had done. Did you notice what Reuben said? He said, “Now we must account for his blood.” The King James version says: “Therefore, behold, also his blood is required.” Reuben was referring to God mandate for capital punishment: “I will require the life of each man’s brother for a man’s life. Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in His image.” (Gen. 9:5b, 6) “Behold, also his blood is required.” The brothers believed that they had killed Joseph and that now they would be killed.
Now look at what Joseph did. (The brothers didn’t realize that Joseph could understand them since he was speaking to them through an interpreter.) Verse 24 says that Joseph turned away from them and wept. His brothers were confessing their sin! This was a very emotional thing for Joseph. Confessing your sin is what leads to salvation. Joseph’s brothers were admitting that they were guilty of murder before God: “I will require the life of each man’s brother for a man’s life.” This is the first step to salvation and life. It’s a beautiful thing before God to admit that you are a sinner. There is much rejoicing in heaven when one sinner repents! (Luke 15:7)
Well, Joseph kept Simeon in prison and sent the rest of the brothers back with grain in their sacks. He knew that they at least would be back when they ran out of food—remember that he knew how long the famine would last—and he knew that they would not come back without Benjamin. They were in a situation where they had to trust Joseph to be a man of his word.
It says that Joseph did something else, too. He saw to it that each man’s money was returned to the mouth of his sack. Then he sent them on their way.
Now let’s look at verses 27 and 28. The brothers stopped for the night on their way back. When one of them opened his sack to get some of the grain to feed the donkeys, he found his money at the top of his sack. Listen while I read verse 28: “He said to his brothers, ‘My money has been returned! It’s here in my bag.’ Their hearts sank. Trembling, they turned to one another and said, ‘What is this that God has done to us?’”
I don’t know what they thought, maybe that they would be accused of stealing in addition to being accused of being spies, but they turned to each other and said, “What is this that God has done to us?” They knew it was God who was rebuking them—rebuking them for something they had done over 20 years earlier. (And, in case you think these things were strictly Joseph’s idea and Joseph’s doing, remember that Joseph was a prophet. He was the one that had the dream about the brothers bowing down to him. He was the one who interpreted the cupbearer’s dream and the baker’s dream and he was the one who interpreted Pharaoh’s dream that prophesied the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine. Only Joseph didn’t put things that way. He said that it was not he, but God who gave the interpretations. And it was God. And it was God who was convicting these brothers of sin. It was God who was doing all these things to bring the brothers to repentance. And it was God who was teaching and training them as patriarchs of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Now let’s look at the rest of the chapter, verses 29 through 38: The brothers arrived home and explained everything that had happened to Jacob. They also explained to Jacob that they would have to bring Benjamin back with them if they expected to get Simeon back and to get any more grain.
Then the brothers opened their sacks and found that each one had had his money returned to him. It says that when they and their father saw their money bags, they were afraid. Now Jacob was afraid, too!
(You know what? Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom! Fear of the Lord is wisdom. It says that in the Bible, too. God says it in his word—all over the place! Let me quote some of them:
Job 28:28: “He said to mankind, ‘Look! The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to turn from evil is understanding.’”
Psalm 111:10: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His instructions have good insight. His praise endures forever.”
Proverbs 9:10: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
and
Isaiah 33:6: “There will be times of security for you—a storehouse of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure.”
And there are other places too. Do you think the fear of the Lord is important? It is!)
Well, Jacob and his sons were afraid. Jacob was a little more humble at this point than he had been when he cheated his brother Esau out of his birthright and out of Isaac’s blessing. But he still didn’t have the faith to send Benjamin to Egypt. He said, “You have deprived me of my sons. Joseph is gone and Simeon is gone. Now you want to take Benjamin. Everything happens to me!” (Have you ever said that—“Everything happens to me?” Have you ever thought like that? I’ll tell you, I do it all the time, but it’s self-centered, not God-centered!)
Verse 37 says that Reuben made a rash proposal to Jacob: “You can kill my two sons if I don’t bring him back to you. Put him in my care, and I will return him to you.” (Remember that Reuben was the one who had sinned against Jacob and Reuben had been the only one who was not willing to do something to get rid of Joseph after he had had the dreams.) Jacob refused to let them take Benjamin back. (Verse 38)
More next week.
May the LORD bless you and keep you;
May the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
May the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.
[Prayer]