Genesis 42:15-43:15

Joseph recognised his brothers when they turned up, but they didn’t recognise him.

He spoke through an interpreter because he didn’t want to reveal that he spoke Hebrew. He didn’t want his brothers to know who he was just yet.

He’s testing them and probes them, asking them some deeply penetrating questions.

Then he accuses them of being spies, coming to spy out the land to see if it’s unfortified and unprotected due to the famine and the brothers are very afraid. Joseph’s trying to get as much information as he can about his family without letting them know who he is.

There’re only ten men there before him, but they confess that they’re really a family of twelve brothers and that one is home with their father and that he other “is not”, meaning he’s dead. This dead one of course is Joseph.

See, they consider Joseph dead, but here he is standing right before them, and they don’t know it!

Joseph accuses them of being spies three times.

There’s going to be a very deep work of repentance take place in these brothers before they can receive the lifesaving food. Joseph’s going to see to that.

He’s manipulating the situation with his brothers here to find out all about his family as he plans to make contact with his youngest brother, Benjamin and, eventually, his father Jacob.

Was Joseph aware at this stage of God’s hand moving over this situation? If so did he see the purpose, the end result that God was bringing about?

It should be much easier for us today to see God working in our lives because we have the scripture like Ephesians 1:11 which reads,

In Him (in who? The Lord Jesus Christ). In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will…

Now which “Him” is the scripture talking about? It’s God, God the Father.

How many things does He work according to the counsel of His will? All Things!

Joseph didn’t have that scripture, but he should have had a deep assurance at this stage in his life that what God wills will eventually come about.

Let’s notice something very sobering here. How far will God go to bring about His own will?

He actually caused a famine in the land. Many thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousand may have starved to death. Why? So that God could move a father and his 11 sons from Canaan down to Egypt.

The same thing happened later when God moved an emperor, Caesar Augustus, to demand that all the world (the known world at that time) be registered in a census. The real reason? To get a carpenter and his pregnant wife to move to Bethlehem at a particular time. Does this sound over the top, ridiculous? It’s what the Apostle Paul describes in 1st Corinthians 1 verse 25 as the foolishness of God which is wiser than men.

Friends we need to understand how serious God is about bringing about His purposes.

We open today in Genesis 42:14-16,

But Joseph said to them, “It is as I spoke to you, saying, ‘You are spies!’ 

In this manner you shall be tested: By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here. 

Send one of you, and let him bring your brother; and you shall be kept in prison, that your words may be tested to see whether there is any truth in you; or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies!” 

Joseph’s attempting to make contact with his youngest brother and his father. These brothers before him are really his half–brothers, but Benjamin is his full–brother, and he wants to see him. This is part of the plan to accomplish this. One thing we should’ve firmly noted by now about Joseph is that not only is the hand of God on him but he’s a master planner and an outstanding administrator.

Verse 17,

So he put them all together in prison three days.

He locked them up in the town prison, maybe the same one Joseph spent time in?

Things look bad for them now, and they wonder what’s going to happen. The penalty for spying is death.

Why three days? Apart from the obvious idea that Jesus was in the tomb 3 days and 3 nights, this could have been that it was the time Joseph was in the pit that the brothers threw him into.

Verse 18,

Then Joseph said to them the third day, “Do this and live, for I fear God: 

Now, this statement should have been a huge relief for the brothers if they were wise enough to think about it.

The statement that Joseph fears God should have encouraged the brothers to believe that he’d treat them justly.

It would be like one of us as a Christian travelling in a nation that hated Christians and suddenly finding ourselves in prison. In one of the darkest moments the Mayor of the town comes to see us and say’s I’m a believer in Jesus Christ. I’m a Christian. You’re not out of jail but you have an inner comfort that someone has your interest at heart.

Again, we see that Joseph gave a testimony for God. He never misses does he. He always gives God the glory as the One who’s directing his life.

Verses 19 and 20,

If you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined to your prison house; but you, go and carry grain for the famine of your houses. 

And bring your youngest brother to me; so your words will be verified, and you shall not die.” And they did so.

These brothers are men, some of them are over fifty years old at this time, and now they find themselves in a real predicament.

They’re being dealt with by one who fears God, but they’re afraid because they don’t know what he’s going to do. Joseph pretends to be testing them to see whether or not they’re honest men as they say they are or spies.

However, what he really wants is for his younger brother to come with them when they come back to claim the hostage brother from prison.

So, he puts into motion the next step of this plan which he may well have thought about for quite a while. He’s going to give them grain for the family, but He demands that one of the brothers stay in prison as a hostage. This will ensure that Benjamin’s bought to him and the brothers and Jacob will think that the whole thing is put in place to prove the brothers aren’t spies.

Verse 21 and note here they’re speaking amongst themselves,

Then they said to one another, “We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear; therefore this distress has come upon us.” 

What’s taking place here is fascinating. They’re speaking in Hebrew amongst themselves, and Joseph can understand them. Joseph had been speaking to them through an interpreter up to now so as not to give a hint that he was anything other than the Egyptian governor. The brothers haven’t clicked on at all that Joseph could speak Hebrew and here they’re making a real confession of their guilt relating to what they’d done to Joseph and Joseph can hear and understand them!

Verse 22 and we’re in Genesis 42,

And Reuben answered them, saying, “Did I not speak to you, saying, ‘Do not sin against the boy’; and you would not listen? Therefore behold, his blood is now required of us.” 

We can’t help feeling that Reuben felt the weight of guilt even more than the others. Here he’s saying that the vengeance of God is upon them for the way they treated Joseph.

Their guilty conscience and especially Reuben’s, told them that this mess was because of that.

This guilt was a good sign of course.

The fact that they related these events with their sin against Joseph showed that they often remembered that sin.

Although there really wasn’t a clear connection between their current situation and their treatment of Joseph in the natural sense, a guilty conscience sees trouble as a penalty for sin.

In the words, “his blood is now required of us”, we hear the conscience of the brothers saying they’ve now got to pay for their crime.

Verses 23 and 24,

But they did not know that Joseph understood them, for he spoke to them through an interpreter. 

And he turned himself away from them and wept. Then he returned to them again, and talked with them. And he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes. 

So here they are talking amongst themselves in Hebrew, not realising for a moment that Joseph understands every word, and they’re openly discussing their guilt about what they’d done to their brother.

It hits Joseph very hard. Here’s a man whose been put through the most intense hardship and has probably reached the point where there’s very little that affects him emotionally. But hearing this moves him so deeply that he begins to weep.

He quickly excuses himself from them and goes of by himself to gather his emotions.

I’m sure he would have loved to have just walked up to them, thrown his arms around each one of them, and called them “brother.”

But that’s not the plan. He wants to get Benjamin there and eventually Jacob.

He gives them a real test now. They’ve got to leave one brother as a hostage, and it’s Simeon who Joseph picks to stay.

We don’t have any idea why he took Simeon. We’re not told if the brothers decided this themselves while Joseph was out of the room or if Joseph himself chose Simeon.

Verse 25,

Then Joseph gave a command to fill their sacks with grain, to restore every man’s money to his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. Thus he did for them. 

Josephs commands that the brothers’ sacks are filled with grain but he’s not going to take their money. He plants their money into the sacks of grain. So, he not only gave them the grain they needed and gave them back their payment for it, but then he gave them food for the trip home as well.

Verses 26 to 28,

So they loaded their donkeys with the grain and departed from there. 

But as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey feed at the encampment, he saw his money; and there it was, in the mouth of his sack. 

So he said to his brothers, “My money has been restored, and there it is, in my sack!” Then their hearts failed them and they were afraid, saying to one another, “What is this that God has done to us?” 

On their way home they camp for the night and go to feed the animals. Here they find in this sack the money they used to pay for the grain.

Normally it would’ve been a good thing to have the money returned. You’d feel as if someone had been wonderfully kind to you, but these boys don’t feel that at all.

Their hearts sank. We’ve all experienced that moment when we realise something terrible has happened. There’s a gut feeling that almost forces us into despair.

This is what happened here to all of them and they feel that the judgment of God’s upon them.

They know they’re under the suspicion of this hard–boiled Egyptian ruler and this only adds to their worry.

Why didn’t they just go back to Egypt immediately and explain that they didn’t steal the money?

Probably it was because they were afraid that no matter what they said they’d be arrested and executed as thieves. They’re not taking any chances. They’re going on home where they’ll be safe, and they’ll try and work it all out there.

Genesis 42:29-34 now,

Then they went to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan and told him all that had happened to them, saying: 

“The man who is lord of the land spoke roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country. 

But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we are not spies. 

We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no more, and the youngest is with our father this day in the land of Canaan.’ 

Then the man, the lord of the country, said to us, ‘By this I will know that you are honest men: Leave one of your brothers here with me, take food for the famine of your households, and be gone. 

And bring your youngest brother to me; so I shall know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. I will grant your brother to you, and you may trade in the land.’ ” 

When they get home to Canaan they tell their father everything that’s happened and how, although they’ve come home with the lifesaving grain, they’re still under suspicion of being spies and that Simeon is being held hostage. The lord of the land, Joseph, wants Benjamin sent to him to prove they’re not liars and that they’re not really spies that mean evil for Egypt.

If they do this and bring back Benjamin they’ll also be able to trade freely in the land of Egypt. This meant they’d be able to stop worrying about starvation throughout the drought.

Verse 35,

Then it happened as they emptied their sacks, that surprisingly each man’s bundle of money was in his sack; and when they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid. 

Something else happens when they open the other sacks of grain. They discover that each sack has in it the money used to pay for the grain. All the money they’d paid had been returned. Jacob saw this as well and rather than cause excitementit bought them fear. What sort of trick had been played on them? Why, why, why IS this?

Verse 36,

And Jacob their father said to them, “You have bereaved me: Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin. All these things are against me.” 

Poor old Jacob!

How he’s changed from the cocky, self-assured individual he once was. However, he’s still not quite the man of faith that we’ll see later either, but he’s getting there. He’s very pessimistic at this moment and he’s directing the blame to the brothers. “You have bereaved me,” he says. In other words, “You have deprived me or robbed me [by causing the loss] of my children.” He seems to blame them for the loss of Joseph, which is interesting because up to now we think Jacob believes the account the brothers gave to him about Joseph.

Did he suspect deep down all along that the brothers were responsible or was he saying that the brothers should have been easier to find when Joseph went looking for them that fateful day way back in Genesis 37?

You’ve caused me to lose Joseph and Simeon and now you want me to lose Benjamin as well, he says.

“All these things are against me.” In other words, “Nothing’s going right for me,” he says.

Joseph wouldn’t have said this. He would have said the same thing that Paul wrote many years later in Romans 8:28,

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

And what Paul also wrote in Philippians 1:6,

…being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ

Verses 37 and 38,

Then Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you; put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you.” 

But he said, “My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is left alone. If any calamity should befall him along the way in which you go, then you would bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave.” 

Again, we see Reuben standing up. We continue to see something of what he must have felt for a long time as he offers the lives of his own two sons if he doesn’t bring Benjamin back.

You see, Jacob’s life was wrapped up in the life of young Benjamin. Joseph was his favourite because he was the firstborn of his lovely Rachel. Joseph’s gone, which is a continual heartbreak to him and now he faces the possibility of losing this other son of Rachel. He says that if he were to lose Benjamin he’ll die, and probably it would have killed him.

His life was absolutely tied up in the life of Benjamin and Jacob says that he’ll not let him go down to Egypt.

In the meantime, Simeon’s down there cooling his heels in jail!

This brings us to Genesis chapter 43 and in this chapter we see that due to the seriousness of the famine, the sons of Jacob are forced to go back to Egypt with Benjamin. Once they get there they’re again taken before Joseph where they present Benjamin to him. Joseph still doesn’t make himself known to them at this stage.

This surely is the most dramatic chapter in the Book of Genesis. Nothing is quite as moving as the appearance of Benjamin before Joseph. The famine and the possibility of starvation has forced Jacob to change his mind and send the brothers back to Egypt with Benjamin which must have caused him great pain and anxiety.

Let’s read the story beginning in Genesis 43:1-2,

Now the famine was severe in the land. 

And it came to pass, when they had eaten up the grain which they had brought from Egypt, that their father said to them, “Go back, buy us a little food.” 

As we’ve already said, Jacob has realised that they’d starve to death if they didn’t go down to Egypt again.

Verses 3 to 5,

But Judah spoke to him, saying, “The man solemnly warned us, saying, ‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’ 

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

But if you will not send him, we will not go down; for the man said to us, ‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’ ” 

“The man” is their brother Joseph, but of course they still don’t know that.

Joseph had given them a cut–and–dried proposal, and they knew he meant it. They must bring Benjamin back or they wouldn’t see his face. In other words, because it was Joseph who meted out the grain it meant they couldn’t buy that precious life giving grain.

Judah stands up to his father and tells him very definitely, “If we go down there, we’ve got to have Benjamin with us or there’s no use going. If he’s not with us the man won’t see us, so therefore if Benjamin doesn’t go with us we’re not going.”

Verses 6 and 7,

And Israel said, “Why did you deal so wrongfully with me as to tell the man whether you had still another brother?” 

But they said, “The man asked us pointedly about ourselves and our family, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Have you another brother?’ And we told him according to these words. Could we possibly have known that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down’?” 

Poor old Jacob’s really frustrated.

He comes back to the question he must have asked them many times, “Why in the world did you tell the man in the first place that you even had another brother?” Of course, he doesn’t realise that Joseph knew it anyway. But Jacob wishes his sons had kept their mouths shut.

Verses 8 and 9,

Then Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and you and also our little ones. 

I myself will be surety for him; from my hand you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever. 

The brothers were really quite reasonable in their answer to their father. They told him that they hadn’t intended to tell “the man” everything about the family but that he kept probing them. He was going to get his information and wouldn’t stop until he did. Then Judah comes forward as a surety for Benjamin.

Judah says to his father, “Send the boy with me, and we’ll be on our way. Otherwise, we’ll all die of starvation, us, you and our families including our little ones.”

He says, “I personally guarantee Benjamin’s safety. You can hold me responsible if I don’t bring him back. I’ll bear the blame forever.

My Friends, you and I have a Surety today, and He came from the tribe of Judah.

The Lord Jesus took my place and became my Saviour, took my place, and took my penalty. I wasn‘t able to meet His standard. I wasn’t able to come up to His level. But the Lord Jesus stepped in and became my Surety and gave His life for me. What an awesome picture of Christ we have here!

Verse 10,

For if we had not lingered, surely by now we would have returned this second time.” 

Judah’s very firm with Jacob and he says to his father, “If you’d let Benjamin go as soon as we came back last time, we’d have been there and back already.”

Verse 11,

And their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: Take some of the best fruits of the land in your vessels and carry down a present for the man—a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, pistachio nuts and almonds.

Notice here that the thing they lacked was grain. Apparently they had honey, nuts, and spices but they lacked bread, the staff of life.

So, Jacob says they should send the man a gift. “Let’s get on the good side of him” is the thought behind what he’s trying to do with these gifts.

Jacob had tried this giving of a generous gift to a potential enemy once before and it worked well for him. We saw this with his brother Esau in Genesis 33.

In the situation that we’re in today, looking back on the full story, we can see the hopelessness of this attempt.

Now to verses 12 to 14,

Take double money in your hand, and take back in your hand the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks; perhaps it was an oversight. 

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

And may God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may release your other brother and Benjamin. If I am bereaved, I am bereaved!” 

So old Jacob finally realises that he’s got no alternative but to let Benjamin go along with his older brothers.

He’s sending them with double the money he sent before.

Money meant little in the face of starvation.

He prays God’s mercy on them and resigns himself to the possibility of losing Benjamin, but now he knows he must accept that possibility.

Here again we see Jacob’s continuing double mindedness. He’s growing in faith but he’s not there yet. It was good for Jacob to call on God’s mercy, but we also see this continuing lack of faith and double mindedness in his statement of “If I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”

See now he asks for God’s Mercy then in the same sentence he states the possibility that he’ll suffer great loss.

If we look at James chapter 1 verses 5 to 8 we can see behind this statement of Jacob’s. And I read,

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 

For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. 

Now the dramatic moment comes the now 11 brothers stand once again before Joseph in verse 15,

So the men took that present and Benjamin, and they took double money in their hand, and arose and went down to Egypt; and they stood before Joseph. 

We can only imagine Joseph’s emotion as spots Benjamin!

But we’ll have to wait till the next episode to see how this all unfolds and it’s definitely one of the momentous stories in the Word of God.

Until then my friends may God be with you and may your trust in Him grow stronger each day.