Sermon Tone Analysis

Wednesday February 7, 2007

Genesis: Genesis 43:1-10-Judah Negotiates With Israel For A Return To Egypt with Benjamin

Lesson # 277

Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 43:1.

This evening we will begin a study of Genesis 43, which contains the record of the second journey of Joseph’s brothers to Egypt.

Genesis 43-45 is a unit describing what happened when Joseph's brothers returned to Egypt.

Like chapter 42, which it echoes, it consists of seven scenes arranged “palistrophically” with the central scene being the arrest of Joseph's brothers (44:1-13).

A Jacob sends his sons to Egypt (43:1-14).

B Arrival in Egypt; the steward and the brothers (43:15-25).

C Lunch with Joseph (43:26-34)

D The brothers arrested (44:1-13).

C Joseph's self-disclosure (44:14—45:15)

B Departure from Egypt; Pharaoh and the brothers (45:16-24)

A Jacob receives his sons' report (45:25-28)

Genesis 43 is divided into three sections: (1) Jacob’s family holds negotiations to return to Egypt (Genesis 43:1-14) (2) Joseph’s brothers arrive in Egypt and have conversation with Joseph’s steward about the silver in their bags (Genesis 43:15-25) (3) Joseph has lunch with his brothers in his home (Genesis 43:26-34).

This evening we will begin a study Genesis 43:1-14, which records Jacob’s sons back in Canaan.

The famine forces the family to face the reality that they must return to Egypt in order to survive.

In this chapter, we see Judah emerging a leader as he speaks wisely and boldly to his father, convincing him to release Benjamin.

Judah risks his own family fortune and life to save the rest of his family and later on he will offer himself to Joseph as a slave for his brother Benjamin for the sake of his father (See Genesis 44:33-34).

This chapter begins and ends with Jacob giving instructions to his sons to return to Egypt to buy food.

In this chapter, we see Joseph and his brothers moving closer to a reconciliation in that Joseph has his brothers over his house for lunch upon their return to Egypt with Benjamin.

Joseph begins to drop his hard front and displays genuine hospitality to his brothers.

The brothers attempt to return their silver to Joseph’s steward and once again in fulfillment of Joseph’s prophecy contained in Genesis 37:5-11, they bow to Joseph.

Also, we will see Joseph becomes emotional at the sight of his only full brother, Benjamin.

We will see that Joseph’s emotions were bound up in his family and not in his Egyptian social position.

Unfortunately, like his father, Joseph favors Benjamin over his other brothers.

Therefore, in Genesis 43, we see Joseph’s dysfunctional family moving towards reconciliation with Joseph being the instrument that God uses to bring this about and who is aware of himself as being at work in such capacity.

This evening we will study the first ten verses of this chapter, which records Judah negotiating with his father for a return to Egypt with Benjamin in order to secure the release of Simeon who was still imprisoned at the time in Egypt.

Genesis 43:1, “Now the famine was severe in the land.”

This statement is similar to the one in Genesis 41:57 and is a reference to the famine in the land of Canaan.

Canaan experienced famine quite often since there was one in this land in the time of Abraham (See Genesis 12:10), there was one in the days of Isaac (See Genesis 26:1) and now a third in the time of Jacob.

In fact, Stephen alludes to this famine in the days of Jacob in Acts 7:11, stating that there was great affliction, and the patriarchs found no sustenance.

The faith of each one of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was tested by famine.

The original Hebrew text of Genesis 43:1 is elliptical meaning that for emphasis, the author does not employ a copula such as “was” but rather the word is implied.

Also, in the Hebrew, we have a waw disjunctive construction meaning we have the conjunction waw followed by a noun and then a verb.

In our passage, we have the conjunction we (w+) (waw) followed by the noun ra`av (vu*r*) (raw-awv), which is in turn followed by the verb hayah (hy*h*) (haw-yaw), “was,” which is omitted because of the figure of ellipsis.

“Was” is the 3rd person feminine singular Qal perfect form of the verb hayah, which is the basic word for “being” and it can be translated “to be, to become, to exist, to happen, to have.”

The Qal stem is “stative” and the perfect tense of hayah refers to the present state of the land of Canaan, which is the result of a preceding situation, namely, the famine.

This waw disjunctive construction expresses a contrast rather than a transition, which the New American Standard erroneously does by translating this construction with the word “now.”

If the disjunctive we is used in a situation with continuity of setting, the clause it introduces may contrast with the preceding, specify contemporary circumstances, or causes, or provide a comparison.

In our passage, this waw disjunctive construction expresses a contrast between Jacob’s negative attitude in which he refuses to send his sons back to Egypt with Benjamin with the reality of the famine being severe in Canaan, which will ultimately force Jacob to send his sons back to Egypt with Benjamin.

The combination of the connective waw and a nominal form (as opposed to a finite verb) plus Qal perfect form of the verb hayah, “became” indicates contrast in Hebrew, that is to say, much more of a “but, however” than an “and.”

We will translate waw with the English “however” rather than “but” since the English “but” marks an opposition or contrast though in a causal way whereas the English “however” indicates a less marked opposition, but displays a second consideration to be compared with the first.

Here in Genesis 43:1 Moses under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit employs the waw-disjunctive construction in order to indicate a second consideration that is to be compared with the statement made in Genesis 42:38, therefore we will translate the disjunctive use of the conjunction waw, “however.”

Therefore, we could translate Genesis 43:1, “however, the famine became severe in the land.”

Genesis 43:2, “So it came about when they had finished eating the grain which they had brought from Egypt that their father said to them, ‘Go back, buy us a little food.’”

The grain supply that the brothers bought in Egypt was being depleted, leaving only enough food to enable their families to survive while they returned to Egypt and back.

The famine became so severe that Jacob was forced to send his sons back to Egypt when the grain they bought in Egypt was nearly exhausted.

He gave this order to his sons knowing full well that his sons had already emphasized with him that if his beloved son Benjamin was not with them when they returned to Egypt, then, not only would Simeon be executed but they all would as spies.

Jacob takes the initiative and exercises his authority in the family by giving the order to his sons to go back to Egypt.

However, he only orders his sons back to Egypt when the situation in Canaan had reached crisis proportions.

The fact that Jacob puts off the decision to send his sons to Egypt serves as an illustration of leadership very poorly exercised.

The characteristics of Jacob’s leadership are all too familiar today.

His first response was to “put it off,” to delay in taking action until the matter had reached crisis proportions.

His statement “Go back, buy us a little food” expresses his sentiment that the famine will only last a little while longer, which was not to be the case.

Genesis 43:3, “Judah spoke to him, however, saying, ‘The man solemnly warned us, ‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’”

Genesis 43:4, “If you send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food.”

Genesis 43:5, “But if you do not send him, we will not go down; for the man said to us, ‘You will not see my face unless your brother is with you.’”

“Judah” (hd*Why+) (yehudhah) (yeh-hoo-daw) was the fourth child that Leah bore to Jacob and his name means, “I will praise the Lord” according to Genesis 29:35 and the Lord Jesus Christ in His human nature descended from him.

Hebrews 7:14, “For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah.”

In Genesis 37 we saw that in an attempt to save Joseph’s life, Judah proposed to his brothers that they sell Joseph to the Midianites.

Then, in Genesis 38, we saw his great failure with Tamar where he left his brothers at Dothan, and spent time with a heathen named Hirah and married an unbelieving Canaanite and had three children with her, two of which were killed by the Lord for their involvement with evil.

Judah failed to provide their widow Tamar his third son Shelah to carry on the line of the two deceased brothers because of his fear that he would die as well.

This resulted in Tamar disguising herself as a temple prostitute and deceiving Judah to solicit her unknowingly, which resulted in her getting pregnant through him and she bore him twins, Zerah and Perez, the latter was in the line of Christ.

In our passage, we see that Judah has grown up quite a bit spiritually and has now assumed the leadership position over his brothers and will maintain that leadership position from this point on (See Genesis 44:14-34; 46:28).

“The man” is a reference to Joseph, which of course at this point in the narrative, Judah and his brothers fail to recognize.

Joseph is referred to as “the man” and his brothers “the men” in Genesis 43 and 44 in order to build the suspense in the narrative as events move towards a climax when Joseph’s identity will finally be revealed to his brothers and he is reconciled to his brothers.

“Your brother” is a reference to Joseph’s lone full brother, Benjamin, the second son of Jacob and Rachel.

Out of concern for his father’s feelings, Judah tactfully paraphrases Joseph’s statement recorded in Genesis 42:18-20 by making the statement, “You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.”

In Genesis 42:18-20, Joseph warned Judah and his brothers that if Benjamin was not with them when they return to Egypt, they were dead men.

Joseph’s brothers had intended to return to Egypt with Benjamin.

However, their father prohibited them from doing so.

It was not until their grain had vir¬tually run out that Jacob face up to the matter.

Judah omits the fact that Joseph would execute him and his brothers as spies if they did not have Benjamin with them when they returned to Egypt at a later date.

He is making clear to his father that the prime minister of Egypt, who they didn’t know was Joseph, was not someone you messed with.

He shows the proper respect for his father and his patriarchal authority but also conveys to his father a definitive condition to match his father’s previous refusal.

Judah is actually helping his father make an inevitable decision of releasing Benjamin to him and his brothers to take Benjamin back with them to Egypt.

Genesis 43:6, “Then Israel said, ‘Why did you treat me so badly by telling the man whether you still had another brother?’”

For the first time since Genesis 37, Jacob is referred to as “Israel,” which signifies that he is no longer walking by sight and totally driven by the old sin nature whose character is reflected in the name “Jacob.”

But rather, he is beginning to walk again by faith and appropriating the power of God by claiming the promises of God, which is reflected in the name “Israel.”

Therefore, it appears that Israel/Jacob knew full well when he gave orders to his sons to go back to Egypt and buy food that he would have to send Benjamin with them since he was warned that they could not return to Egypt without Benjamin.

Although he presents a brief complaint to his sons about offering more information than they needed to convey to the lord of Egypt, Jacob/Israel eventually agrees to allow Benjamin to return to Egypt with the rest of his sons, which demonstrates his faith that the Lord will protect Benjamin.

Genesis 43:7, “But they said, ‘The man questioned particularly about us and our relatives, saying, ‘Is your father still alive?

Have you another brother?’

So we answered his questions.

Could we possibly know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down'?’”

Notice how all Judah’s brothers back him up as indicated by the pronoun “they.”

The brothers point out to their father that it was impossible to know, which way the conversation with the lord of Egypt would go.

Genesis 42:10-16 does not record Joseph putting forth these specific questions to his brothers but rather portrays them as volunteering the information.

However, Genesis 44:19 confirms the honesty with which they speak to their father here in Genesis 43:7 since the former records them reminding the lord of Egypt that he had asked specifically if they had a father or another brother.

Therefore, we can see that Genesis 42:13 is a summary or a general description of the conversation between Joseph and his brothers and thus, Genesis 43:7 and 44:19 gives us more details of this conversation.

They felt that by being honest with the lord of Egypt and supplying details about their family background was the only way to clear them of the espionage charge.

They sensed that the lord of Egypt wanted to know about their family in detail.

Genesis 43:8, “Judah said to his father Israel, ‘Send the lad with me and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, we as well as you and our little ones.’”

Without disrespecting his authority, Judah confronts his father with the reality that he has no alternative but to send Benjamin back with rest of his brothers to Egypt so that all three generations of their family will not die of starvation.

“Lad” is the noun na`ar (ru^n^) (nah-ar), which refers to a male from infancy (Exodus 2:6) to marriage (Genesis 21:12, 17, 18; 34:19; 41:12).

At this point in the narrative, Benjamin was more than twenty-two years of age since Benjamin was born before Joseph went down to Egypt.

Judah’s statement “that we may live and not die” is a double entendre referring to his father’s words recorded in Genesis 42:2 that they will die of starvation if his sons don’t buy food in Egypt and to Joseph’s threat to kill the brothers if Benjamin does not return with them (See Genesis 42:18-20, 34).

Three generations are included in the phrase “we as well as you and our little ones” thus indicating that Judah is appealing to his father’s paternal instincts.

Genesis 43:9, “I myself will be surety for him; you may hold me responsible for him.