Genesis 44.1-13-Joseph Tests The Integrity of His Brothers One Final Time
Sunday February 18, 2007
Genesis: Genesis 44:1-13-Joseph Tests His Brothers Again
Lesson # 283
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 44:1.
This morning we will begin a study of Genesis 44:1-45:15, which records one of the most dramatic and beautiful scenes in all of the Word of God, namely, in this passage, we see Joseph testing the integrity of his brothers one final time and finally revealing his true identity to his brothers and reconciling with them.
Genesis 44:1-44:15 is divided into three sections: (1) Joseph tests the integrity of his brothers (Genesis 44:1-13). (2) Joseph tests Judah’s integrity (Genesis 44:14-34). (3) Joseph reveals his true identity to his brothers and reconciles with them (Genesis 45:1-15).
This morning we will study Genesis 44:1-13, which contains the first section.
In this passage, the tension of the narrative builds with Joseph testing his brothers one final time by putting his silver cup in Benjamin’s sack and directing his steward to make accusations against them of ingratitude and theft and the brothers respond rashly if one is found guilty.
Genesis 44:1-2, “Then he commanded his house steward, saying, ‘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. Put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, and his money for the grain.’ And he did as Joseph had told him.”
While Joseph’s brothers are sleeping off the effects of the alcohol they drank that night at the banquet, Joseph is plotting to frame his brother Benjamin in order to test his brothers’ integrity one final time.
Up to this point in the narrative, Joseph’s brothers have recognized the providence of God in their lives and have expressed regret regarding their actions against Joseph twenty years before.
They have also demonstrated their honesty by producing Benjamin and therefore, have not harbored ill will towards him as they had Joseph.
However, up to this point, Joseph is not convinced that the character of his brothers has truly been transformed by God and that they have changed in their attitudes.
Joseph has not revealed his identity to his brothers at this point since he is not convinced that if his brothers were faced with the same set of circumstances as when they mistreated him that they would act differently.
Therefore, Joseph recreates what took place between him and his brothers twenty years before in order to test to see whether or not they have truly been changed by God and would if given the chance again, not repeat the same crime.
Joseph wanted to discover if his brothers would sell their father’s favorite and Rachel’s son, Benjamin as a slave as they had sold him who also was his father’s favorite and Rachel’s son.
He also wanted to know if they would again treat their father insensitively as they did when informing him of his demise twenty years before by letting Benjamin remain in slavery as they did with him.
In effect, Joseph wanted to know what they would do if forced to choose between their own personal welfare and that of Benjamin and their father.
Joseph wanted to put Benjamin in a difficult situation in order to see how far his brothers would go in risking their own necks to seek his deliverance.
Joseph issues three orders to his steward: (1) “Fill the men’s sack with food, as much as they can carry” (2) “Put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack” (3) Put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest and his money for the grain.”
First of all, he gives orders to fill each of his brothers’ sacks with as much food as they can hold, and not just what they paid for but more, which would be noticed by the brothers and would lull them into having a false sense of security.
By generously supplying his brothers with more grain than they paid for, Joseph will make his brothers’ “ingratitude” appear all the greater when they are apprehended for alleged theft (Nahum Sarna, JPS Torah Commentary, page 303, Jewish Publication Society).
The second order issued by Joseph to his steward was a repetition of a previous scheme of his, which we saw in Genesis 43, where he gives orders to place the silver that his brothers used to purchase grain from him back in the mouth of each of their sacks so as to make them look guilty of theft.
This order would have a two-fold effect upon Joseph’s brothers in that not only would it renew their sense of guilt but also would reinforce the steward’s earlier statement that God was working on their behalf.
The third and final order given to the steward was to “plant” Joseph’s silver cup in Benjamin’s sack and place his money as well in the mouth of his sack as a ruse to test the brothers’ integrity.
The “silver cup” was Joseph’s drinking vessel, which he identifies to his brothers in Genesis 44:5 as a cup he used for divination, and which identification was a trick to test the integrity of his brothers.
The cup is identified for us as “silver” not to merely emphasize its value since the theft of it would have been wrong no matter what the cup was composed of but rather the word is used to recall Joseph’s brothers selling him into slavery for twenty pieces of silver.
Joseph plants his silver cup in Benjamin’s sack since he is attempting to recreate the circumstances, which led to his being sold for twenty pieces of silver.
Like Joseph, Benjamin is the son of Rachel and his father’s favorite.
By planting the silver cup in Benjamin’s sack, the brothers are faced again with a situation of whether or not to abandon a son of Rachel and their father’s favorite.
All three of these orders that Joseph gave to his steward were to test the genuineness of his brothers’ character transformation.
Genesis 44:3, “As soon as it was light, the men were sent away, they with their donkeys.”
As the brothers were leaving for Canaan, they must have been overjoyed that not only did they have Benjamin and Simeon with them to return to their father but also, the lord of Egypt treated them very well whereas previous to this trip he had treated them harshly.
However, little did they know that the hardest part of this latest journey to Egypt was about to take place.
Genesis 44:4-5, “They had just gone out of the city, and were not far off, when Joseph said to his house steward, ‘Up, follow the men; and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good? Is not this the one from which my lord drinks and which he indeed uses for divination? You have done wrong in doing this.’”
Genesis 44:6, “So he overtook them and spoke these words to them.”
The accusation “Why have you repaid evil for good” is designed to produce the maximum amount of anxiety in the brothers.
By making this accusation, Joseph is saying in effect, “I treated you as guests and gave you more grain than you paid for, out of the goodness of my heart and now you have repaid me by stealing from me.”
The statement “Is not this one from which my lord drinks and which he indeed uses for divination” assumes that the brothers know what the steward is talking about without actually mentioning the cup, but of course, they have no clue.
The use of the pronoun “this one” without reference to any antecedent would indicate to the brothers that the steward believed they knew full well what they had stolen.
Joseph was well-known to possess prophetic insight and the brothers had experienced it when they were seated at the banquet in the order of seniority.
The inference seems to be that the Egyptians attributed Joseph’s prophetic ability to his cup of divination and that this cup was an object coveted by many and now here are the brothers stealing this gift for themselves.
Of course, Joseph did “not” practice divination since it was outlawed among God’s covenant people but rather it was simply a part of his scheme to test the integrity of his brothers.
He wanted to continue to disguise himself as simply the lord of Egypt and not their long lost brother whom they sold into slavery over twenty years before.
“Divination” was the art of obtaining secret knowledge, especially of the future, and is a pagan counterpart of prophecy.
The Scriptures teach that divination is inspired by the kingdom of darkness whereas genuine prophecy is by the Spirit of God, thus the Scriptures prohibit divination (See Deuteronomy 18:10-12).
Divination presumes that other spiritual forces control the world and are therefore not under God’s sovereign authority and was prohibited in Israel since it causes people to trust in evil demonic forces instead of trusting in God.
Among the Egyptians this sort of divination consisted of pouring clean water into a cup and then looking into the water for representations of future events, or in pouring water into a cup or dish, dropping in pieces of gold or silver or precious stones, and then observing and interpreting the appearance of the water.
Melted wax was also poured into the water and the will of the gods interpreted by the variously shaped figures formed in this way.
Genesis 44:7-9 records the brothers’ response to Joseph’s accusations.
Genesis 44:7, “They said to him, ‘Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing.’”
Genesis 44:8, “Behold, the money which we found in the mouth of our sacks we have brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord's house?”
Genesis 44:9, “With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord's slaves.”
The brothers vehemently protest their innocence in emphatic terms by pointing to their past conduct in that they returned their money on their previous trip.
The brothers' promise recorded was not only rash but foolish since the contents of their sacks had surprised them previously.
It is interesting that years earlier Laban had searched through Jacob’s possessions for his teraphim that remained hidden in Rachel's tent and Jacob had pronounced a death sentence on the guilty person (See Genesis 31:23, 25, 33, 35).
Now the Egyptians searched for Joseph’s cup of divination and found it in the sack of Benjamin, Rachel’s son and the brothers here also pronounced a death sentence on the guilty person.
However, the brothers’ rash oath also more importantly demonstrates that the brothers accept the principle of collective responsibility.
Genesis 44:10, “So he said, ‘Now let it also be according to your words; he with whom it is found shall be my slave, and the rest of you shall be innocent.’”
Joseph’s steward brushes aside the brothers’ rash oath and did not hold them to it but simply stated that the “guilty” person would become a slave.
Therefore, we can see that Joseph had set his brothers up with a perfect excuse to abandon Benjamin and free themselves from slavery.
Genesis 44:11, “Then they hurried, each man lowered his sack to the ground, and each man opened his sack.”
Genesis 44:12, “He searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack.”
Genesis 44:13, “Then they tore their clothes, and when each man loaded his donkey, they returned to the city.”
The brothers hurry to open their sacks in order to rid themselves of this accusation as soon as possible, which demonstrates their conviction that they are innocent of the charges made against them.
The comment “beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest” heightens the tension of the narrative for the reader.
The steward knows the ages of all the brothers because of the banquet the night before.
The narrator does not mention the silver planted in the mouth of the sacks of each of the brothers because it is inconsequential to the reconciliation of the brothers.
The silver cup in Benjamin’s sack is more important since Joseph is testing the attitude of the brothers towards Benjamin.
Notice the reaction of the brothers in that they do not even consider the possibility that they have been set up and do not consider for one moment that Benjamin was in fact guilty but rather this situation caused them to believe that God was dealing with them again for their treatment of Joseph.
Also, notice that the brothers say nothing but their actions speak louder than words in that when Joseph disappeared, only their father tore his clothes in grief but now all of the brothers do so, which expresses their unity.
Their collective expression of grief confirms their character transformation and demonstrates their affection for both Benjamin and their father.
In the days of the patriarchs, tearing one’s clothing was a sign of great personal distress and here it expresses emotional distress of all the brothers when the silver cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.
They were upset at the prospect of having to turn Benjamin over to the Egyptians and return to their father and break his heart.
That they all returned with Benjamin to the city reveals that they did not abandon Benjamin, which demonstrates that they have passed the first part of Joseph’s test.
Had the brothers acted only in self interest, they would have condemned Benjamin as a thief, deserted him, and fled from Egypt as quickly as possible.
However, these were not the same men that had determined to do away with Joseph at Dothan (See Genesis 37).
More than twenty years had passed since they had sold Joseph into slavery, and yet it was as though they were reliving the event in the person of Benjamin.
In the past, they had resented the favoritism their father showed to Joseph (See Genesis 37:4) just as Benjamin was their father’s favorite (See Genesis 44:27 31).
When they sold Joseph into slavery and were far from the watchful eye of their father, they attempted to kill Joseph violently (See Genesis 37:20) and then to starve him to death in a pit (See Genesis 37:22), and then finally to sell him into slavery for twenty pieces of silver (See Genesis 37:26 28).
Now they were faced with a similar situation, which was orchestrated by Joseph himself.
Benjamin, Jacob’s favorite, was in their care, far from their father’s protection and was accused of a crime for which there was no opportunity to establish his innocence.
They, without any real guilt, such as they deserved before, could merely choose to walk away and enjoy their freedom at Benjamin’s expense.
They could return to their father just as they had done so long ago and break his heart with the news that his other son was dead.
More than twenty years later, the same temptation faces these men.
Will they manifest a change of heart, or will they act in self interest?
This is what Joseph is trying to determine by testing his brothers again.