Genesis 42 - Grief, Guilt, Grudge

Introduction

Tonight we are going continuing our series through Genesis and we’ll be in Genesis chapter 42.

What we are going to notice tonight is that contains what I’m going to call the three G’s that every man and woman that lives long enough will encounter. Grief, Guilt, and Grudges.

And G

Recap 41 - Joseph interprets Pharoahs dream 7 years of plenty - 7 years of famine.

We noticed how Joseph has matured and how he doesn’t demand repayment of the wrongs done to him, but he humbly accepts the Pharoahs promotion to oversee the collection and distribution of Grain over the next 14 years.

He has two children - Manasseh and Ephraim and remembers that it was God who watched over him for the past 20 years or so years since he was sold into slavery by his brothers.

and Now Joseph, or Zaphenath-Paneah (savior of the world) is in charge of saving the world around him by having grain when the world in is a famine.

Grief

We start off chapter 42 with Jacob, a character that we haven’t heard from since the end of chapter 37 when he is depicted as grieving for Joseph who he believes to have been killed by a fierce animal and the text tells us

Genesis 37:35 ESV

35 All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father wept for him.

Gen 37:

It’s an unfortunate fact of life that if we live long enough on this Earth, we will encounter grief. We will eventually lose someone we love, witness evil at work in our world around us, or be stricken with personal illness that robs our happiness and causes us to mourn. Grief is a part of life, and I believe we continue to see Jacobs grief here in chapter 42 and 43 causing him to make additional mistakes in his relationships with is children.

Genesis 42:1–5 ESV

1 When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” 2 And he said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die.” 3 So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. 4 But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might happen to him. 5 Thus the sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

20 years have passed from the close of and the start of . and we see that not much has changed with the behavior of Jacob. He’s still allowing himself to blatantly display favoritism to Benjamin, Joseph’s brother as he sends off the 10 sons of Leah, Bilhah, and Zilpah as if he cares less for them.

20 years have passed from the close of and the start of . and we

Grief can be a hard thing to cope with. And it’s even harder to dole advice out to someone who is grieving. As we always say, Job’s friends were excellent friends until the moment they decided to open their mouths.

So it’s important I think for us to decide how we are going to react in moments of grief ahead of time. Because honestly, in moments of grief, you know who people listen to? No one. Is that not what we see from Jacob in ? He shut down, and instead of reevaluating his relationship with his children, he instead chose to cling even tighter to Benjamin and set up the same kind of family trouble that existed with Joseph.

We’ll see his grief continue to cause problems at the end of the chapter and into chapter 43, so for now just remember that we need to have a plan for how we will handle grief in a Godly way before it comes upon us.

Grudge

Gen 42:6-

Genesis 42:6–20 ESV

6 Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground. 7 Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them. “Where do you come from?” he said. They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.” 8 And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. 9 And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them. And he said to them, “You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land.” 10 They said to him, “No, my lord, your servants have come to buy food. 11 We are all sons of one man. We are honest men. Your servants have never been spies.” 12 He said to them, “No, it is the nakedness of the land that you have come to see.” 13 And they said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan, and behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more.” 14 But Joseph said to them, “It is as I said to you. You are spies. 15 By this you shall be tested: by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here. 16 Send one of you, and let him bring your brother, while you remain confined, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you. Or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies.” 17 And he put them all together in custody for three days. 18 On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this and you will live, for I fear God: 19 if you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody, and let the rest go and carry grain for the famine of your households, 20 and bring your youngest brother to me. So your words will be verified, and you shall not die.” And they did so.

Now before we continue into the story, we need to stop and try to read this text as if we are reading it for the first time. We often times read this section of scripture as if we understand the motives of Joseph while he is treating his brothers roughly and calling them spies because we know his motives later in the story.

But if we were reading this for the first time, what would we be thinking about from the beginning of chapter 42 to verse 20?

This is a really suspenseful 20 verses is it not? I mean we start with Jacob and his sons being impacted by the famine, which in our day in time we are blessed to not really understand how deadly famines can be. You remember the man made “famine” that the soviet union imposed on Ukraine that Ben Mereness told us about? That man made famine killed over 5 million people. Now imagine a natural famine that has spread over the entire earth and how devestating that would be!

So this is a serious, deadly serious situation, when Jacob says in v. 2 “Go down and buy grain for us there that we may live and not die” that was not an exaggeration.

Then among that serious situation, Joseph recognizes his brothers and Joseph’s motives are not immediately made known.

In v. 7 he recognizes them, and immediately we are told that he spoke roughly to them and treated them as foreigners.

Then, he recalls the dream he had of them bowing before him and instead of relenting what do we see Joseph do?

He doubles down and calls them the worst thing you could call someone, A crime punishable by death! Spies....

Now to the reader reading this for the first time, what would we be thinking is in the mind of Joseph in this moment?

Well let me ask this, when we watch movies what do we want to happen to the bad guy? We want justice to be served don’t we!? We would hate a movie that ended with the thief getting away, or the murderer not getting caught. We want them to pay, we have a grudge to setting and justice demands payback!

And so at first glance it seems as though Josephs motives might be just that. It’s time to return the favor for years of slave labor, for imprisonment, for removing him from his home.

They are spies, and they will pay.

You know, what’s true about grief is also true about grudges. If we live long enough, someone is going to wrong us. They are going to sin against us and we are going to feel completely within our rights to repay evil for evil. It seems so far in our story that is exactly what Joseph is going to do, but eventually the admission of guilt by the brothers and their understanding of their wrongdoing either changes Josephs heart, or it exposes his motivations.

Guilt

:21-

Genesis 42:21–28 ESV

21 Then they said to one another, “In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.” 22 And Reuben answered them, “Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.” 23 They did not know that Joseph understood them, for there was an interpreter between them. 24 Then he turned away from them and wept. And he returned to them and spoke to them. And he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes. 25 And Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, and to replace every man’s money in his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. This was done for them. 26 Then they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed. 27 And as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he saw his money in the mouth of his sack. 28 He said to his brothers, “My money has been put back; here it is in the mouth of my sack!” At this their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”

I want you to notice that the Joseph’s brothers have been carrying around this guilt for this wrong doing, and continually having to see their father’s grief for 20 years and day after day they have been waiting on a reckoning for their wrongdoing.

Remember, that back in v. 13 as they tried to convince Joseph that they were honest men, they lied to Joseph saying

Genesis 42:13 ESV

13 And they said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan, and behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more.”

Gen 42:

You have to think that Joseph is thinking “Really, one is no more?” They had told that lie for so long to their father that they had possibly come to believe it themselves.

But here they seem to be speaking from the heart to one another. It’s not clear to me exactly what is happening with verses 23-24, either Joseph had forgotten how to speak their native language and they knew how to speak Egyptian and spoke in their native tongue here thinking he wouldn’t understand. Either way, it appears they said this in front of him as he was forced to turn away to hide his tears from them after the interpreter told him what they said.

Joseph mourns at the knowledge that they regret what they have done. He also hears, perhaps for the first time, that it was Reuben who pleaded for them not to do what they had done.

The notice in v. 28 who they attribute the reckoning of their guilt to? God.

Guilt is the same as grief and grudges in that if we stay alive long enough on this earth, we will sin against God and against our fellow man.

I remember in grade school sticker board.....

Genesis 42:29–38 ESV

29 When they came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them, saying, 30 “The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly to us and took us to be spies of the land. 31 But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we have never been spies. 32 We are twelve brothers, sons of our father. One is no more, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan.’ 33 Then the man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this I shall know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for the famine of your households, and go your way. 34 Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I shall know that you are not spies but honest men, and I will deliver your brother to you, and you shall trade in the land.’ ” 35 As they emptied their sacks, behold, every man’s bundle of money was in his sack. And when they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid. 36 And Jacob their father said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children: Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and now you would take Benjamin. All this has come against me.” 37 Then Reuben said to his father, “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.” 38 But he said, “My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is the only one left. If harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.”

Gen 42:29

Grief, Grudges, Guilt

All are best handled and lifted off of our shoulders when we give them over to the biggest G word of them all, GOD.

We are going to see later in the story how Joseph was able to see a bigger picture than his personal loss. And how that led to forgiveness for his brothers and a release from their guilt, and by the grace of God Jacob was able to be relieved of his crippling grief.

All three of these, Grief, Grudges, and Guilt can at times cause incredible heartbreak, but as

Psalm 147:3 ESV

3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

If we can pray for you, or help you in any way, you can come know as we stand and sing.