This week, we are looking at an event from history that
is recorded for us in a section of the very first letter that is recorded for
us in the Bible, called the book of Genesis. Yesterday, we looked on as Jacob’s
sons, desperately needing food, approached Joseph and bowed to the ground as a
customary sign of respect for his position as Prime Minister. However, while
Joseph’s brothers failed to recognize Joseph, Joseph clearly recognized his
brothers. Twenty years after being sold into slavery by his brothers, Joseph
was now face to face with his brothers. And just like the dream that Joseph had
when he was with his brothers; Joseph’s brothers were now bowing before him.
Joseph responded to the appearance of his brothers by
harshly accusing them of being enemy spies who were on a reconnaissance mission
to discover the exposed and unprotected areas of the nation in preparation for
a future attack. Joseph’s brothers, recognizing that they were in serious
trouble, and unaware of who they are talking to, deny the allegations by
claiming that they were honest men.
However, instead of revealing himself to his brothers,
Joseph turns up the heat by repeating the allegation. You see, by turning up
the heat, Joseph was hoping to get more information about his father and the
rest of the family. Joseph’s tactics worked, as his brothers defended
themselves by pointing to their father and their youngest brother who were back
in the Land of Canaan waiting for the famine relief that they had come to seek.
What the brothers did not know, however, was that they were speaking to the
brother that they had assumed had died long ago after being sold into slavery. Today,
we see Joseph’s response to their denial and explanation in Genesis 42:14:
Joseph said to them, "It is as I said to
you, you are spies; by this you will be tested: by the life of Pharaoh, you
shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here!
"Send one of you that he may get your brother, while you remain confined,
that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you. But if not, by
the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies." So he put them all together in
prison for three days.
Joseph explains to his unknowing brothers that he was
going to put them to the test to determine if they were really honest and
upright men. The test that would prove their honesty and integrity would be for
one of the brothers to return to their father Jacob and bring back with them
their youngest brother Benjamin, while the other brothers remained in Egypt as
prisoners.
You see, from Joseph’s perspective, if they had sold him
as a slave because he was the favorite son of his favorite wife Rachel, then
what have they done to his younger brother Benjamin? Joseph wanted proof that
Benjamin was really alive. But that was not the real point of this test, as
Moses reveals for us in verse 18:
Now Joseph said to them on the third day,
"Do this and live, for I fear God: if you are honest men, let one of your
brothers be confined in your prison; but as for the rest of you, go, carry grain for the famine of your
households, and bring your youngest brother to me, so your words may be
verified, and you will not die." And they did so.
After giving his brothers a small taste of the
confinement that he had experienced for years, Joseph calls his brothers into
his presence and explains that the terms of the test had changed. By saying "Do
this and live, for I fear God” Joseph is saying “As a way of demonstrating that
you can trust that my word is true and that I am reliable, I am going to change
the terms of the test”.
Joseph then explains that instead of sending one to their
father while leaving the other nine behind in custody, he was willing to send
nine to their father while leaving only one in custody. In addition, Joseph
would provide them food to take back with them to their family. So Joseph’s
brothers received the food that they had come for and were able to return back
home, minus one brother. If they brought their younger brother back with them,
they would prove that they were honest and upright men. If they did not return
with their youngest brother, the one brother that remained in custody would be
executed.
Now a natural question that arises here is “why would
Joseph change the conditions of the test?” First, Joseph changed the conditions
of the test in order to make sure enough grain would be able to be carried back
to Jacob and the family. Second, by changing the test, Jacob would not be
excessively stressed about the possibility of losing nine sons instead of one
son. And third, by changing the conditions of the test, there would be nine
voices that would be persuading Jacob to allow Benjamin to make the trip to
Egypt instead of just one voice.
You see, the test is not simply whether or not they would
bring Benjamin back. The real test is whether or not they would leave a brother
behind. Would the brothers abandon another brother as they once abandoned
Joseph over twenty years earlier? Were the brothers still angry, jealous, and
deceptive? Or had the brothers changed to be honest and upright men? That was
the test. After revealing the test, Moses then reveals the brothers response to
the test in verse 21:
Then they said to one another, "Truly we
are guilty concerning our brother, because we saw the distress of his soul when
he pleaded with us, yet we would not listen; therefore this distress has come
upon us." Reuben answered them, saying, "Did I not tell you, 'Do not
sin against the boy'; and you would not listen? Now comes the reckoning for his
blood." They did not know, however, that Joseph understood, for there was
an interpreter between them. He turned away from them and wept.
The brothers basically say to
one another “Truly we are now bearing the consequences of what we did to our brother
when we ignored his agony and his cries for grace and pity. Now we are
experiencing the agony that he had experienced”. Rueben, however, steps back to
defend himself. Rueben basically says “hey don’t lump me in with the rest of
you guys. This is not my fault. I told you not to sin against him, but, no, you
would not listen to me. And now his blood is seeking us out”.
You see, Joseph’s brothers
believed that they were experiencing what the Bible teaches in Galatians 6:7
that we reap what we sow. And the brothers were now learning that hard way that
when it comes to this principle, we reap later and we reap greater. We
experience the consequences of our sin later in life and we experience the
consequences greater in life. And now, some twenty years later, Joseph’s
brothers believed that they were experiencing this principle play out in their
lives. Joseph, upon hearing the conversation, was overcome with emotion. The
brothers did not realize that they had just admitted to their brother the wrong
that they had committed against him.
Friday, we will discover a timeless
truth as we see Joseph begin to give the test…
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