Genesis 44

We pick up the story after a big party and everyone having a good time. The relationship with “the man” (side not- if you have trouble with bible names especially in the Old Testament… don’t feel bad…these guys couldn’t pronounce Zaphnath-paaneah either) seems to be restored and they are hanging out with the second most powerful man in Egypt. They get a good nights sleep and they are heading back home…all good…high 5’s all around. We got our food and we got our brother…its been a good trip! The story picks up with this one last test that Joseph has for his brothers.

Joseph’s Plan

I always look at this entire story as one great big story of redemption. I just want to pause and make sure that I clarify that when I say story...you know I am speaking of a historical event that took place. We sometimes find it easy to romanticize the Bible stories and think of them outside of history but this happened…As I look at this story closer though, I see that there are other things going on which eventually lead to repentance and that it all works together as God unfolds things. It’s also easy to forget how long this takes. From the beginning of this story until chapter 44 spans over 20 years…even though its just a few pages. So there are things going on in the lives of each one of these people that are forming them and we don’t see much of it at all. We see some of Joseph’s life…the highlights and low lights, and we see this seemingly out of place story about Judah and Tamar. That’s it…but there is so much more than just one story line going on. We know as Sean said at the beginning of this series that Joseph represents a type of Christ in the Old Testament. He is the salvific figure here…but he is not Christ… he is a guy who can interpret dreams but is not the all knowing sovereign God. He is as his brothers call him “the man” or a man. So what could he be doing here…Let’s look at the text again… Genesis 44:1-2

Genesis 44:1–2 ESV

Then he commanded the steward of his house, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack, and put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, with his money for the grain.” And he did as Joseph told him.

Joseph has had over 20 years to think about what happened to him. He also has that time to think of what might have happened to his only full brother Benjamin. They were brothers from the same mom, Jacob’s favorite wife. I am sure that Joseph could have only imagined what might have become of his little brother…because of how dad treated him, he could only assume that Jacob would treat Benjamin the same way…and he would in turn probably assume that his brothers would look at Benjamin the way they looked at him. It is possible, that Joseph has devised a plan to save his brother from being mistreated by his brothers. It is possible that even though his brothers were saying the right things, they had not really changed. They were playing the part but they really needed food or they would die. So either way, Joseph gives these orders to the steward Genesis 44:3-6

Genesis 44:3–6 ESV

As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away with their donkeys. They had gone only a short distance from the city. Now Joseph said to his steward, “Up, follow after the men, and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good? Is it not from this that my lord drinks, and by this that he practices divination? You have done evil in doing this.’ ” When he overtook them, he spoke to them these words.

The Brothers Response

I want to take a moment to discuss the “divination cup.” This was an item in the ancient world that prominent people who had what some would consider special abilities in magic or sorcery. We know that Joseph got his knowledge from the true God, Elohim, but Joseph was playing the role. He is also playing on their guilt as well. He has special knowledge of what they have done and he knows they feel guilty because he has overheard them talking about it in Hebrew. So he is laying it on. Let’s look at their response to the steward though.... Genesis 44:7-13

Genesis 44:7–13 ESV

They said to him, “Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing! Behold, the money that we found in the mouths of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house? Whichever of your servants is found with it shall die, and we also will be my lord’s servants.” He said, “Let it be as you say: he who is found with it shall be my servant, and the rest of you shall be innocent.” Then each man quickly lowered his sack to the ground, and each man opened his sack. And he searched, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. Then they tore their clothes, and every man loaded his donkey, and they returned to the city.

Here we see that they are so adamant about their innocence that they put their lives on the line! They are like kill one of us and put the rest in captivity if this is true…the steward is like..that escalated quickly…um…I’ll take the one who took the cup back into slavery and the rest of you guys can go free. They have to consider at this point that they have been set up…but they unload their stuff and let the search begin…again being searched by age…probably too scared to think too much about it this time. Then there it it…Benjamin had the cup. We don’t see the dialogue here. I am sure it wan’t quiet…Benjamin is probably like…guys…I didn’t do this… What would an unrepentant group of brothers do here? What would have happened if these brothers had not changed the way they thought of their little brother or their dad? Hey, this is pretty convenient. We don’t even have to lie to dad this time…our hands are clean…Benjamin brought this on himself…We are rid of dads second favorite son and we got our food and money back! Dad won’t die…he made it through losing Joseph…he’ll make it through this…and if not…inheritance! Sorry Benjamin…we out!!!!!!!! That’s not what happened. They tore their clothes, loaded up and said…we are gonna face this thing together…Benjamin…we got this. Its been over 20 years…they have changed and now they have a chance to prove that they are different men than they were before. So as a united front they go to plea their case before “the man.” Genesis 44:14-17

Genesis 44:14–17 ESV

When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was still there. They fell before him to the ground. Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination?” And Judah said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; behold, we are my lord’s servants, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found.” But he said, “Far be it from me that I should do so! Only the man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my servant. But as for you, go up in peace to your father.”

Judah’s response is very important. How he says what he says tells us a lot about what is in his heart. What shall WE say and what can WE speak, how can WE clear ourselves. He is saying that they are in this together…and he is just talking about the original 10 because further down he makes a distinction....both we and he also…so he is admitting that the WE is the original 10 that sold “the man” to slavery…and that is their guilt. God…elohim…has found the guilty. There is where the brokenness comes out in Judah… They are there for a specific reason and they are being wrongly accused. They are not guilty…especially not the 10....just maybe Benjamin…but he knows that they above all are guilty even more so than Benjamin for the sins they have been hiding and running from over 20 years now. We cannot hide our sins from the Lord. We are guilty…just like these guys…but can we admit it and do something to change? Have we been broken so that we can be remade? Joseph does not relent…He insists that they go back and that Benjamin remain. Is it possible that Joseph is going through some brokenness of his own? He has had 20 years to have the thoughts of the betrayal of his brothers, 20 years to think of nothing but how they were deciding whether he lives or dies…his last memories were of that. Maybe he doesn’t want to let them in and have a chance…maybe he needs to be broken too…We assign pure motives because we know the end of the story but like Sean said last week quoting Romans 8:28 …God uses all things…even our brokenness and bitterness…to work together for good for those who love god and are called… He wants Benjamin…not the others.

Romans 8:28 ESV

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

Judah’s Response

Genesis 44:18-34

Genesis 44:18–34 ESV

Then Judah went up to him and said, “Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s ears, and let not your anger burn against your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself. My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father, or a brother?’ And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a young brother, the child of his old age. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him.’ Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’ We said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’ Then you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see my face again.’ “When we went back to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord. And when our father said, ‘Go again, buy us a little food,’ we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother goes with us, then we will go down. For we cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. One left me, and I said, “Surely he has been torn to pieces,” and I have never seen him since. If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs in evil to Sheol.’ “Now therefore, as soon as I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy’s life, as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. For your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life.’ Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.”

BOOM…This is what true repentance looks like. This is repentance…this is putting action to words. He is saying take me instead of the boy. We took a little detour in this series in chapter 38 that seemed so out of place. Why in the middle of a story about Joseph that we know so well is this story about Judah…who has evil sons…who does something immoral and wicked…who is humbled in the process because he sees the evil of his own ways…and he repents…changes…now he can have this talk with “the man.” Because he has grown and he has known the loss of his sons and knows the guilt of being responsible for causing the loss of his dads favorite son.

What can we take away from this story that we know so well.

Gods Plan - Redemption

John 3:16

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

As we started this chapter, we looked at Joseph’s plan. I said that I always looked at the big picture of this story and did not look at some of the small details. Josephs plan was his big picture and we looked at what it might have been and we see how it unfolded. God has a plan and that plan began unfolding for humanity in the garden. Just like this story, we have the benefit of seeing His plan from a distance. It has been laid out for us in the Bible for us to see in it’s entirety. Unlike Joseph, God does not change, He never waivers from his plan but like I said earlier…God’s plan is about our redemption. God set His plan in motion for His glory and our good and we have seen it unfold beautifully in Jesus Christ. Jesus sums up the scriptures concerning Himself on the Emmaus road speaking with a couple of followers... Luke 24:25-27

Luke 24:25–27 ESV

And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

So just like Joseph, we see that there is a plan but we have a decision that we need to make. Many in here have made that decision some maybe not. It is one thing to see the plan…see blueprints…It’s another thing altogether to accept the plan and build the building with those plans. Knowing God’s plan is the start…but we have to respond…just like the brothers had to respond to Joseph...

Our Response - Brokenness

When I say “our” response, I am talking about all mankind here. We all have a response to make here. Just like the brothers were emphatic about their innocence regarding the cup…we sometimes do not see ourselves as the word tells us. Romans 3:10-12

Romans 3:10–12 ESV

as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

When facing Joseph and the loss of Benjamin, they realized that they were guilty…that they were not righteous…regardless of the cup. they deserved a just punishment for their unrighteousness…and they gave the righteous sentence themselves… Genesis 44:9

Genesis 44:9 ESV

Whichever of your servants is found with it shall die, and we also will be my lord’s servants.”

That was when they looked at themselves as innocent. Now they stare at their accuser admittedly guilty…that is what brokenness looks like and that is what should lead us to make the only right decision that we can, because Paul reaffirms what Josephs brothers knew way back then when he wrote that Romans 6:23

Romans 6:23 (ESV)

For the wages of sin is death

I ain’t the sharpest knife in the drawer but I can put 2 and 2 together and get 4…No one is righteous and the wages of sin is death…that is not the outcome that I am looking for here…That is why when we know the truth and believe the truth…we come before God broken…because we are…no matter how bad or good we think we are…we all come to God broken Which leads to...

My Response - Repentance

God’s plan - Redemption is for all mankind…Our Response - Brokenness is true for all of mankind but My Response - Repentance is personal. No one can repent for me but me…What are we gonna do with God’s plan in light of our brokenness? Many of you have probably though…wait a minute thats not all of Romans 6:23…and you are right Romans 6:23

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God’s plan is personal. Our response is too. I know Sean already looked at repentance as a theological tidbit but I am going to rehash that today a bit…have you ever noticed that we see the same things happen over and over in scripture and we are like…come on man…figure it out already…Are we any different?

Many of you have noticed that I have lost some weight lately. The truth is, I have spent pretty much all of my adult life overweight. The past 10 years were particularly excessive. I had been between 240-265. There were plenty of diet plans out there for me to use to “repent” of my weight…weight watchers, keto, intermitent fasting, the 17 day diet, and the list goes on. They were right there in front of me and I would tell my wife on occasion…I’m gonna go on a diet. Then I would pass a Dairy Queen…or better yet…a Krispy Kreme… Do I really need to diet? I’m doing all right. Started on blood pressure medicine about 10 years ago but that was probably genetics…although the doctor always told me that I would be better off at a more healthy weight. Then, about 5 years ago, after my wife noticed that I would stop breathing in my sleep and I woke up thinking I was going to die because I couldn’t catch my breath…I went to do a sleep study and I have severe sleep apnea…Doctor said I should loose some weight. Ok…I’m kinda broken…but there’s this cool machine that can fix that. 3 years ago, the doctor said that I was pre-diabetic and losing some weight would help…so I commited to repent from my overweightness… But I didn’t follow the plan and knew I was breaking but not broken… Then I went back for a checkup and blood work and they said…you did it! You need a new medication to battle your new affliction of diabetes…Even then, even with the advice of my doctor and the results in front of me I figured that it was because I hadn’t fasted properly before my blood work. I wasn’t ready to repent…I wasn’t ready to get on with the plan that would change my life and admit that I was broken so that i could truly repent. I said a hundred times that I was going to lose weight and that I was repenting from my overweightness but I did not mean it. I finally said enough is enough. I am going to look at a plan because there was no hiding that I am broken. I made a decision in mid January that I was going to do it for real this time. I said I was going to do it and I started to go down a different ath. I started a plan, I turned around and I have lost 40 pounds with still some to go. I truly repented.

You see we are looking at repentance again even though we just focused on it a few weeks ago because it is a complicated thing. The tidbit we had a month ago ended with Repenting means starting to live a new life. That is so true. I added to that, this aspect of repentance...While repentance is not a work that earns salvation, repentance unto salvation does result in works. It is impossible to truly change your mind without that causing a change in actions. What I had done all those times before was not repentance because I hadn’t started living a new life, those words did not result in any works that would lead to a change.

When I was young, I grew up in a church and knew all about God. I knew all about His plan. I knew John 3:16 in the King James Version! I knew that I needed Jesus. I even said some prayers as a child and teenager…but walked away and did nothing different and felt no need to do anything different. I said yes to Jesus as I was walking straight off a cliff. Have you ever answered your spouse while engrossed in a movie or a game on tv and you had no idea what you agreed to? That is what it was like. But just like with my weight loss, there was one time when I said to the Lord, this time I really do believe…this time I really will follow Your plan. I know I am broken, I know I need fixed and you are the only one that can put me together…and I need to follow you. At that moment my life changed forever. I know that because as I read in Acts about the believers being filled with the Holy Spirit, I felt that. I knew something was different and that my brokenness was being mended and that I had a plan that I could and would follow…more than that I had a savior, friend and Lord that I could trust and rely on as I repented truly. I am not here to judge anyone’s salvation. I know my story. I know what the Bible says and I know that salvation requires faith and repentance…faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection from the tomb and repentance from my sin and brokenness and trust in that work.

So where are you this morning? Do you know the plan? Do you recognize your own brokenness? Have you decided to turn away from the brokenness and receive the gift of salvation from Jesus? Are you like I was for so long and have wrestled with your brokenness and thought that Jesus can help and said that you want His help but just kept walking towards the cliff…maybe today is the day that you say I am ready to turn to you Jesus and follow the plan you have for my life. Maybe you are good and have settled this with Jesus. That’s awesome. Let’s come together and help our brothers and sisters along in their faith. Let’s Love God, Love Others and Make Disciples right here in our own faith family at PV. Jesus tells us in Luke 5:31-32

Luke 5:31–32 ESV

And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

The good news is that God has a much broader plan that doesn’t just end with repentance and as you turn away from your sins and turn towards Jesus he begins to reveal the details of the plan He had in mind at creation…He tells us that in Ephesians 2:10

Ephesians 2:10 ESV

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

We just need to walk in repentance because we are broken and only He can restore us....