The Weight of Guilt

Introduction

My experience with stealing...

The guilt of what I’d done at Bart’s Mini Mart ate me up when I was a kid. But, it was less about the realization that I’d done something wrong, but that my dad was going to find out and put a hurting on my behind (which I would have 100% would have earned!)

As I got older and became a follower of Jesus, my sin creates conviction that is different. For sure, I don’t want to face the consequences of bad actions. But, more importantly, I don’t want to sin against my God who sacrificed so much for an unworthy sinner like myself.

But, that doesn’t mean I haven’t had my share of failures, mistakes, and sins. Now, unlike with my experience at Bart’s, the weight of guilt I feel is as much directed towards God as to the people I’ve wronged. So, I’ve learned to, as much as possible, confess my guilt to others, and to confess my guilt before God. More on that in a bit.

This morning, we are going to see what happens when the weight of guilt starts to come to bear on Joseph’s brothers and, in doing so, we will consider what we should do when we are weighed down with the guilt of past sins.

Body: Genesis 42:1-23

Verses 1-5

The focus briefly shifts away from Joseph and back to Joseph’s family, still living in the land of Canaan.

The famine is widespread and Jacob and his family is experiencing it.

“Why do you look at one another?”

Jacob sounds annoyed at the brothers, like he’s frustrated that they are just sitting around, doing nothing, while they are potentially starving.

Ten brothers head to Egypt, but Jacob won’t allow Joseph’s youngest brother, Benjamin to go along.

Favoritism? Perhaps, since Benjamin was the other son of Rachel.

However, I suspect that Jacob didn’t trust the boys. Last time one of his sons was with the brothers he was killed (or so Jacob thinks).

I suspect that Jacob simply didn’t trust the boys.

Verses 6-11

What begins here will continue throughout the next three chapters. Joseph will test his brothers. But what is he testing?

To check to see if his father, Jacob, and his brother, Benjamin are still alive.

To see if they have changed at all since he last saw them.

I imagine at this point that Joseph was reminded of his dreams:

Genesis 37:5–8 ESV

Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.

Joseph recognizes his brothers, but they don’t recognize him.

They don’t recognize him because:

He looks Egyptian now;

Twenty years have past and Joseph was seventeen when they sold him into slavery;

They weren’t expecting to find him there;

Joseph speaks “roughly” to them...

Joseph’s accuses them of being spies...

“We are honest men.”

Verses 12-17

The brothers confirm that both Jacob and Benjamin are alive.

Joseph wants to see Benjamin for himself, so he threatens them, telling them he will let one brother go back to get Benjamin but keep the other brothers in custody under the charge of being spies.

He infers here that if Benjamin doesn’t come, they will be killed, like all spies.

Why does he throw them into jail for three days?

It’s often suggested that Joseph is trying to give them a taste of what he experienced at their hands. I don’t believe this is the case.

Joseph is actually doing a couple of things:

There’s actually an opportunity to get refueled after their long journey. In custody they would have been protected and given meals.

More importantly, Joseph is sweating them. Meaning, Joseph is showing his power and authority in order to convince them that they shouldn’t attempt to cross him.

Joseph knows what his brothers character was like the last time he saw them. By doing this, he’s giving them something to think about and scaring them enough that they will feel obligated to bring Benjamin, and eventually Jacob to Egypt.

Finally, Joseph’s actions here will directly lead into an opportunity to see that his brothers do recognize that they wronged him so many years before.

Verses 18-23

After the three days, Joseph alters the deal, telling them that one will remain in custody while the others go back to get Benjamin.

This is done for practical purposes because they needed to bring a lot of grain back, more than one person could carry.

Verse 21 is vitally important because it shows that they were feeling responsible for what they did to Joseph.

At this point it could simply be that they believe “what goes around, comes around” but the point remains the same: they acknowledge that they did something that might be bringing this misfortune upon themselves.

We see the Old Testament view that many held called the doctrine of retribution.

This was the idea that if something bad was happening to you it was because of your sin.

Joseph’s brothers are convinced that they are being punished because of their mistreatment of Joseph, especially that they ignored his pleas for mercy while in the cistern.

But does God really bring retribution upon people like this?

Well, it needs context.

See, bad things sometimes happen as a result of our bad actions. Obviously.

And, sometimes God will allow bad things to come into our lives as a result of our sin to bring us to repentance.

However, let us not forget that God is not impatient with His people, as we are often impatient. And, if we were really going to receive the just retribution for our sins we would be without hope, utterly lost.

Jesus indeed took upon Himself the punishment for all our sins, past, present and future.

But, what God often does is bring conviction for our sins and moves our conscience about the wrongs we have done.

We see the conscience of the brothers is beginning to get pricked. Though I wonder if it had been bothering them for quite some time!

A man struggling with his conscience wrote to the government, saying, “I have cheated on my income tax. I can’t sleep. Here is a check for seventy-five dollars. If I still can’t sleep, I’ll send you the balance.”

That little piece of humor reminds us that feeling guilty isn’t enough if it doesn’t lead to heart change.

We will see that the brothers will change throughout this ordeal. It started with guilt of past wrongs, but will move to a resolution that they would have never expected.

But, confessing their wrongdoing was a vital starting place!

Reuben’s anger here suggests that he didn’t take part in selling Joseph to the Midianites.

Remember, it was Reuben’s desire to rescue Joseph himself, becoming both the hero and trying to make amends with his father for sleeping with his father’s concubine.

Because they didn’t know this was Joseph, they speak Hebrew, assuming no one could understand them.

As we will see next week, Joseph understands them and is moved by their admission of guilt.

So What?

In this morning’s passage we see the weight of guilt.

We have no idea if Joseph’s brothers felt any guilt for their actions before this or not. But, after being put into custody and threatened by this high ranking Egyptian official, the guilt of past sin comes rushing into them. And now, when faced with what seems like an impossible choice, they are convinced that their sins have finally found them out.

Of course, they have no idea that they are safe under the watch-care of their brother whom they wronged. And that Joseph’s real motivation at this point is to get the entire family to Egypt so they can be safe from the ravages of the famine. At this point, there was no way for them to know this.

For them, on one hand they refuse this Egyptian official’s request to get Benjamin and come back and potentially end up in a Egyptian prison for the rest of their lives (or executed). On the other hand, they knew their father wasn’t likely to sign-off on allowing them to bring Benjamin back to Egypt with them. Impossible choices either way.

No doubt, the weight of the guilt they feel at this point was crushing. Not necessarily because they feel bad about what they’ve done at this point (maybe they do maybe they don’t). But they certainly believe that they are facing the consequences for their actions against Joseph.

Unfortunately, for many of us, the weight of guilt doesn’t hit us until we start to feel the consequences of our actions. Sometimes that feeling of guilt comes before the consequences, but too often it isn’t until we are facing the very real results of past actions that we start to feel guilty.

Either way, what do we do?

Joseph’s brothers, in a way, give us the first two steps:

Recognize your sin.

Confess your sin.

We get to go a step further as believers. Look at what John tells us:

1 John 1:5–9 ESV

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Because of Christ Jesus finished work on the cross, we can confess our sins, knowing that He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us of our unrighteousness.

Confess your sin to God.

Experience God’s forgiveness.

Does this mean that we won’t experience consequences for our actions? Of course not! Real world guilt usually leads to real world consequences. But, spiritually we bear no more guilt for our sins because Christ Jesus already took the punishment for those.

But that starts with knowing Jesus and following Him as the Lord of our lives...