GENESIS

JOSEPH

Joseph in Egypt
Joseph's First Encounter with His Brothers

Genesis 42:1-38

INTRODUCTION

God Blesses the World through His People

As we study the stories of Joseph and his brothers several different themes emerge. First, the story of Joseph so much fulfills the promise God made to Abraham. When God first called Abraham to follow him, He said: "And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." God will exalt Joseph so that he can save his family, his brothers and their families, and also his father; however, he will save more than just them. Repeatedly throughout these stories we hear Moses saying that the famine hit the whole world and that the whole world came to Joseph for food. Moses sees what Joseph did as one fulfillment of God's promise to bless the whole world through Abraham and his descendants.

That promise is still operating today. In Galatians and Romans Paul claims that Christians are sons and daughters of Abraham. I shudder to think what life would be like today if our society was void of Abraham's sons and daughters. Corsicana is a better place to live because of the presence of the churches and its people. First Baptist is making such a positive contribution to Corsicana. Impact Corsicana keeps the city on its toes with regards to alcohol restrictions. How many people are fed through the Food Pantry and Food for Fitness which our church supports? The list goes on and on and on.

Recently I got to see this principle more up close. We just got back from a trip to Ethiopia. Whenever we got off the plane, our escort told us not to fear while we were in Ethiopia. The reason, he said, was that we were friends of the president of Ethiopia. Why? The work that Baptists are doing in Ethiopia through Buckner has so impressed the president that he has given his special blessing to our operation. He is in fact so impressed that whenever a group goes to Ethiopia in Buckner's name, he invites that group over for refreshments and a meal. We must be doing something right if the president of a foreign country wants us to be involved.

Parents Affect Future Generations

Second, Moses is taking a special interest in the lives of the 12 sons of Jacob because of the influence they will exert upon future generations. Each of Jacob's sons will head up a tribe; all 12 tribes will eventually form the nation of Israel ruled by Saul, David, and Solomon. The lives of these 12 sons will to a large degree seriously affect the nature of each of the tribes. Reuben, though he is the first-born, will be relegated to obscurity because he had slept with his father's concubine. In the story before us we will see how even though Reuben asserts himself, he is not taken seriously by his father or brothers. On the other hand, Joseph and Judah (who is no saint himself) are being transformed into real leaders. It is by no means a coincidence that in future generations the 2 leading families/tribes of Israel will be the 2 established by Judah (the southern kingdom) and Joseph (the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh the 2 major tribes of the northern kingdom). Their actions while alive on earth set the tone for the great tribes they will produce.

Parents so desperately need to hear the warning these passages give us. What we do affects not only our lives but also the lives of our children and the lives of future generations. I've seen parents who were raised by godly Christian parents live a life apart from Jesus when they were younger and had children at home. Later when their children grew up, these parents got serious about Jesus. Unfortunately, the damage had been done. Their children and grandchildren couldn't be any further away from the Lord. The parents got right, but they ruined the spiritual lives of future generations.

The opposite though can be true also. There are so many people I want to meet in heaven. One of them is my great-grandmother. I have never met her; however, I do know that she was a godly Christian woman who greatly influenced my grandmother to live for Jesus. She in turned influenced my mom who influenced me. I just want to be the kind of parent who positively affects his children and their children, etc. The choice is ours.

Reconciliation

The third theme running through the next several chapters is reconciliation. At the end of chapter 41 we see Joseph closing the book on his relations with his father and family back in Canaan. Here is a man who is second-in-command of the world's great empire. He has at his disposal all the tools of communication, and yet he refuses to communicate with his father and brothers. It would be like VP Dick Cheney refusing to pick up his cell phone and calling his mom to tell him after an absence of 22 years that he is indeed alive. That is cruel indeed.

Joseph though has been wounded. He doesn't hate his family. Later events will show that the exact opposite is true; he still loves them deeply. He just doesn't trust them any more. They have deeply hurt him. He doesn't want to take a chance on them any more. He's not afraid that they will kill him. As second-in-command he is physically safe, just not emotionally safe. You would think he would at least contact Jacob. The fact that he does not contact his father shows us the depth of the wounds he is experiencing. He has so closed this chapter in his life that he names his first-born "Manasseh," meaning "God made me forget [my family]." Joseph though needs healing, and the only way he can be healed is to be reconciled with his family.

Many claim that Joseph is one of the best pictures of Jesus in the OT. This story of reconciliation is good support for that claim. Other than the story of Jesus, this is the greatest story of reconciliation in the entire Bible. Reconciliation lies at the heart of Christianity, reconciliation with God and with each other. We can learn much about reconciliation from the way that Joseph actually becomes reconciled with his family.

FAMINE STRIKES CANAAN (42:1-4)

When Moses writes that the famine had struck the whole earth, the whole earth included the land of Canaan where Jacob and his family lived. Jacob turns on his 10 older sons: "Why are you staring at one another? . . . Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down there and buy some for us from that place, so that we may live and not die." So Jacob sends the 10 older sons down to Egypt to buy grain.

Note the tone of hostility in Jacob's voice: "Why are you staring at one another?" Why is Jacob being nasty to the 10 older brothers? What has happened that has brought out this hostility on Jacob's part? We shall see the reason later in the passage.

Verse 4 also is interesting and gives us some insight into what is to come. Although Jacob sends his 10 older sons to Egypt, he does not allow Benjamin to go along with them. At first blush this seems reasonable since Jacob was partial to the sons of his favorite wife Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin. Again, as the story progresses though, we will see that there is probably another reason why Jacob didn't let Benjamin go with them. Just keep these 2 things in mind: (1) Jacob is being nasty to the 10 older brothers and (2) he refuses to allow Benjamin to go to Egypt with them.

JOSEPH DEALS WITH HIS BROTHERS--THE FIRST TIME (42:5-24)

The brothers arrive in Egypt to purchase food and immediately run into Joseph. Although Joseph immediately recognizes the brothers, they do not recognize him. Why? First, they never in their wildest dreams ever imagined that the brother they sold into slavery was now second-in-command of all Egypt. Second, after living in Egypt for 22 years, Joseph was probably thoroughly Egyptianized. He looked like an Egyptian, spoke like an Egyptian, and walked like an Egyptian. There was nothing about him which indicated he was Joseph.

When the brothers encounter Joseph, they bow down before him low to the ground in fulfillment of Joseph's earlier dreams. Joseph speaks harshly to them: "Where have you come from?" When they reply that they are from the land of Canaan, Joseph accuses them of being spies who are checking out the undefended regions of Egypt. Now the whole charge is preposterous. They came dressed as foreigners, spoke as foreigners, and came in a large group noticed by everybody. Yet when Joseph levels the charge at them, the brothers can't really defend themselves because they are intimidated by this great man.

When the brothers reply that they are not spies but are all sons of one man, Joseph insists that they are indeed spies who have come to check out the undefended parts of the land. This time the brothers elaborate that not only are they the sons of one man but that in fact at one time there had been 12 brothers in all. One was still at home with his father, while the other one (Joseph) was no longer alive. Joseph again accuses them of being spies. He commands that they be locked into prison until the younger brother could be sent for.

(Why does Joseph insist that Benjamin be sent for? Probably in order to see him because he loved him. Moreover though, he might have been afraid for Benjamin's life. If the 10 older brothers had tried to kill him one of Jacob's favorite sons, it might just be possible that they had actually killed Benjamin the other favorite son of Jacob. He fears for Benjamin's life.)

After 3 days Joseph though decides to release all but Simeon. He claims that he is releasing them because he fears God. Also, he probably realized that he was jeopardizing Jacob's family. They were starving and needed food. Joseph sends 9 of the brothers back in order to make sure that the family does not perish. He will keep Simeon though as guarantee that they will indeed bring Benjamin back with them to "prove" their innocence."

Reuben upbraids the other 9 brothers. He had warned them not to harm Joseph, but they had ignored his advice and had sold him into slavery. God was now punishing them for their actions which they committed 22 years earlier.

Why in the world would Reuben bring up Joseph and the past? It was over 22 years ago that they had done this thing. Surely God doesn't harbor resentment for 22 years. Apparently the brothers had been feeling guilty for the past 22 years for the way they treated Joseph because the instant they are thrown into prison, they attribute it to the crime they had committed against their brother. For 22 years they had been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Well, now they correctly see that the other shoe has indeed dropped.

This part of the story is so politically incorrect. Today if a Christian claims that God has brought dire circumstances into a person's life because of sin, that Christian is hammered. Whereas it is true that not all bad circumstances are due to sin, it is also true that sometimes bad circumstances are due to sin. In other words, God does judge us sometimes by bringing bad times into our lives. Judgment IS coming. We may not experience it until Christ returns; we may have to face God by facing our Joseph's. However, judgment does come for each and every one of us. To deny this is to deny the biblical emphasis on judgment. Reuben has correctly seen that they are being punished because of what they did to Joseph.

At this point Joseph turns aside to weep. Why? He might just feel a little guilty in what he is doing; however, he has to be sure that these brothers are trustworthy. More likely he weeps because he loves his brothers. If he loves them, then why is Joseph going through all these "charades"? Why didn't he just immediately rush out and disclose himself to them? First, he was not acting this way out of anger. Second, he still loves his brothers. Right after Reuben upbraids his brothers for what they had done, Joseph turned away and wept.

It is so hard to destroy family affection. I've seen children of some pretty sorry parents weeping profusely at their parents' funerals. These relationships are not easily dismissed as some try. Joseph though is being cautious when it comes to his brothers. He has been seriously wounded emotionally by his brothers. Before he has any further relationship with them, he wants to make sure it is safe to have that relationship.

Joseph's approach may seem strange and "unspiritual"; however, we see that Jesus did just the same thing with people He encountered. In John 2 we see that the Jews at the Passover were so impressed with the miracles Jesus was performing. They were so impressed that they actually believed in Jesus. Now what do you think was Jesus' response? Was He excited? Did He call these to become His chosen 12? No. John says that whereas everybody was believing in Jesus, He was not believing in them. In other words, He was not entrusting Himself to them. He needed more than just a temporary outburst of enthusiasm to convince Him that their commitment to Him was genuine (John 2:23-25). If Jesus knew not to commit Himself too early, how much more should we not commit ourselves too easily and too soon to people who are enthusiastic about a relationship with us. This is not being callous or skeptical. It is being wise.

Notice what Joseph does next. He demands that one remain as hostage until the other 9 brothers return with Benjamin as "proof" that they are not lying. What is interesting is that he does not detain Reuben the eldest. Rather he detains Simeon, the second eldest. By Reuben's own words and the brothers' tacit agreement, Joseph knows that Reuben the eldest was not responsible for his being sold into slavery. So instead of detaining the eldest as would have been the most natural thing to do since he would have been the leader of the pack, he detains the second eldest, Simeon. He then sends them home with grain and a surprise.

THE BROTHERS GET A SHOCK (42:25-38)

The brothers now return to Canaan. On their way home they stop to feed their mules. One of the brothers opens a sack filled with grain to feed his mule. To his shock and horror he discovers that the money he has used to pay for the grain is now in his sack. Moses writes that their hearts immediately sank. They began asking: "What is this that God has done to us?" They correctly see that God is using Joseph to discipline them, even better, to transform them from being little petty men into being great patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel.

When they finally arrive home, the brothers inform Jacob of what has transpired. They tell him that the next time they go to Egypt for food, they must also take Benjamin along with them. They then open up the other sacks of food and to their horror again they see in the sacks all the money they had used to pay for all the grain. They are dismayed. Just like Paul commands, Joseph is killing them with kindness.

Not only are they dismayed; Jacob is beside himself. At this point he lets it all out. There was a reason he was hostile towards the 10 at the beginning of the chapter. There was a reason he didn't let Benjamin go with them the first time. The reason? He didn't trust them because even though they had never confessed, he knew in his heart that they had killed Joseph: "YOU have bereaved me of my children. JOSEPH is no more, and Simeon is no more, and you would take Benjamin." The money in their sacks might just actually indicate that they had actually sold Simeon into slavery.

There's a famous saying which is currently circulating throughout our political world right now: "The chickens have come home to roost." Well, the chickens have come home to roost. An event which happened 22 years ago has come home to haunt the brothers. It is time for them to come to grips with what they did to Joseph. God does forgive us; however, He also expects us to come to grips with sin in our lives.

At this point unfortunately Reuben interjects: "Father, Benjamin must go with us the next time or we shall starve. If I do not bring him back with us, then you can kill my 2 sons." What a horrible offer. But no matter how serious the offer is, Jacob will have none of it. Not only does he prefer Benjamin to life itself, he also has rejected Reuben. Reuben is no longer qualified in Jacob's eyes to lead. Reuben had defiled Jacob's concubine. Reuben is definitely out of the loop. Another son must lead the way in saving the family from disaster. That son will emerge next week. (to be continued.)