Sermon Tone Analysis

Tuesday February 20, 2007

Genesis: Genesis 44:14-17-Joseph’s Brothers Admit Their Guilt

Lesson # 284

Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 44:1.

On Sunday morning we began a study of Genesis 44 by noting Genesis 44:1-13 where we saw Joseph testing the integrity of his brothers by “planting” his silver cup in Benjamin’s sack.

By planting his silver cup in Benjamin’s sack, Joseph is testing his brothers as to whether or not they will remain loyal to Benjamin even when he looks guilty of theft or will they abandon him in Egypt as they had done to him.

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.

This evening we will begin a study of Genesis 44:14-34, which records Judah offering himself to Joseph in place of Benjamin.

But before offering himself to Joseph in place of Benjamin, we see in Genesis 44:14-17 that Judah admits to Joseph on behalf of his brothers that they are guilty of selling Joseph into slavery twenty years before.

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.”

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.

The term “silver” is reiterated twenty times in the account of Joseph and his brothers in Egypt that appears in Genesis 42-45 since Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery for twenty pieces of silver and so therefore, Joseph is testing them with the 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.

Genesis 44:3, “As soon as it was light, the men were sent away, they with their donkeys.”

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.”

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.”

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.’”

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.”

Genesis 44:14, “When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house, he was still there, and they fell to the ground before him.”

Undoubtedly, Joseph was overjoyed and filled with thanksgiving to God that all of his brothers were returning with Benjamin.

Notice that Judah has taken the lead since he promised his father to take personal responsibility for the safety of Benjamin.

Once again, the brothers prostrate themselves before Joseph, which was a fulfillment of the second stage of Joseph’s two prophetic dreams that are recorded in Genesis 37:5-11.

The dream/prophecy recorded in Genesis 37:5-11 was fulfilled in three stages: (1) Joseph’s brothers bowed once to honor him while he was prime minister of Egypt without Benjamin and Jacob (See Genesis 42:6).

(2) With Benjamin but without Jacob, Joseph’s brothers bowed down twice to honor him while he was prime minister of Egypt (See Genesis 43:26, 28; 44:14).

(3) All Joseph’s brothers bow down to him along with his father Jacob (See Genesis 46:1-27).

The fact that the brothers fell to the ground was not only an act of respect for a sovereign but also an expression of desperation and a plea for mercy.

Genesis 44:15, “Joseph said to them, ‘What is this deed that you have done?

Do you not know that such a man as I can indeed practice divination?’”

Joseph accuses the brothers sharply for the alleged theft of his silver cup since the day before he had treated them graciously, thus making the brothers look ungrateful by stealing his silver cup.

He feigns indignation and addresses his brothers collectively and accuses them of all being involved in the theft and not just Benjamin.

The question “Do you not know that such a man as I can indeed practice divination?” means that the brothers should have known that a man like him could practice divination to discover what happened to his silver cup.

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.

The brothers are powerless to prove their innocence and are at the mercy of the lord of Egypt since they have means to demonstrate their innocence.

Genesis 44:16, “So Judah said, ‘What can we say to my lord?

What can we speak?

And how can we justify ourselves?

God has found out the iniquity of your servants; behold, we are my lord's slaves, both we and the one in whose possession the cup has been found.’”

Judah takes the leadership role by acting as the spokesman for all his brothers and makes three points.

The first point is that the brothers’ are innocent of stealing the lord of Egypt’s silver cup as expressed in the statement “how can we justify ourselves,” which in the original Hebrew text reads, “how can we prove our innocence?”

“How can we justify ourselves?” is composed of the interrogative mah (hm*) (maw), “how” and the 1st person common plural hithpael imperfect form of the verb tsadheq (qd@x*) (tsaw-dak), which means, “to be innocent.”

The New American Standard translation makes it appear that Judah is stating that the brothers can not justify their theft of the silver cup but the original text says that Judah is complaining that he can not demonstrate their innocence.

The NIV correctly translates this Hebrew expression, “How can we prove our innocence?”

Judah’s statement “How can we prove our innocence?”

expresses Judah’s frustration that the circumstantial evidence against them is so overwhelming that they find it useless to attempt to defend themselves as expressed by the statements, “What can we say to my lord?

What can we speak?”

The statement “God has found out the iniquity of your servants” contains Judah’s second point in which he expresses his conviction that their dilemma is the result of God’s judgment for selling Joseph into slavery years before.

The statement “God has found out the iniquity of your servants” is “not” a confession of guilt in the theft of the silver cup since Judah has already stated their innocence.

But rather, the statement is a reference to the crime the brothers committed against Joseph when he was seventeen years of age since it implies that their crime was kept secret to men but known to God.

Therefore, this statement is an admission of guilt before God that they were wrong in their cruel treatment of Joseph, which reveals that the brothers had been burdened for over twenty years with guilt.

The solution to a guilty conscience is the confession of sin to God the Father, followed by obedience to the Word of God, which constitutes “repentance.”

1 John 1:9, “If any of us does at any time confess our sins, then, He (God the Father) is faithful and just with the result that He forgives us our sins and purifies us from each and every wrongdoing.”

1 John 2:5, “But, whoever, at any time does observe conscientiously His Word, indeed, in this one, the love for the one and only God is accomplished.

By means of this we can confirm that we are at this particular moment in fellowship with Him.”

The presence of the silver cup in Benjamin’s sack and their inability to clear themselves of the charges awakened the conscience of each of the brothers to the extent that they now realized that God was dealing with them for their treatment of Joseph.

Their distress was a manifestation that they have reaped what they have sowed in that they were reaping distress in their own souls because they sowed distress in the soul of Joseph.

Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”

Therefore, Judah is admitting to the lord of Egypt, who is Joseph, that although they were innocent of the theft of his silver cup, they were in fact guilty of a crime they committed against Joseph over twenty years before, which is the second time that they admit their guilt in Joseph’s presence (See Genesis 42:21).

The fact that Judah would admit their crime against Joseph to the lord of Egypt indicates that he and his brothers believed that in some way, the lord of Egypt was acting as God’s agent in dealing with them.

Since Judah and his brothers were guilty of a crime of selling Joseph into slavery twenty years before, he states that it is only justice that they should be made slaves.

The statement “behold we are my lord’s slaves, both we and the one in whose possession the cup has been found” contains Judah’s third point and expresses the solidarity of the brothers in that they will not abandon Benjamin, if Benjamin has to stay as a slave in Egypt, then they all will become slaves.

Genesis 44:17, “But he said, ‘Far be it from me to do this.

The man in whose possession the cup has been found, he shall be my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.’”

By asserting that only Benjamin will remain as his slave, Joseph is testing Judah’s last statement that he and his brothers will not abandon Benjamin in Egypt but will become slaves as well, which is the final test of his brothers’ integrity.

If they accept Joseph’s offer, they fail the test but if they refuse, then they have passed it since twenty years before they had abandoned Joseph.

The brothers are confronted with several agonizing decisions in that they can save their own lives at the expense of Benjamin but if they remain loyal to him, then their father and their families would die of starvation at the expense of their loyalty to Benjamin.

As we will see, Judah solves the problem by offering himself in the place of Benjamin so that his brothers can bring back food to their starving families.

This encounter between Joseph and his brothers has now reached its climactic moment in that they are confronted with a decision to accept Joseph’s offer and abandon Benjamin in Egypt and break their father’s heart again or to reject it and remain loyal to Benjamin.

In Genesis 44:18-34, Judah reveals to Joseph that they will not abandon Benjamin but that he will offer himself in place of Benjamin so as not to break his father’s heart.

Genesis 44:18, “Then Judah approached him, and said, ‘Oh my lord, may your servant please speak a word in my lord's ears, and do not be angry with your servant; for you are equal to Pharaoh.’”

Genesis 44:19, “My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father or a brother?’”

Genesis 44:20, “We said to my lord, ‘We have an old father and a little child of his old age.

Now his brother is dead, so he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him.’”

Genesis 44:21, “Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me that I may set my eyes on him.’”

Genesis 44:22, “But we said to my lord, ‘The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’”

Genesis 44:23, “You said to your servants, however, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’”

Genesis 44:24, “Thus it came about when we went up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.”

Genesis 44:25, “Our father said, ‘Go back, buy us a little food.’”

Genesis 44:26, “But we said, ‘We cannot go down.

If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down; for we cannot see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us.’”

Genesis 44:27-28, “Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons and the one went out from me, and I said, ‘Surely he is torn in pieces," and I have not seen him since.’”

Genesis 44:29, “If you take this one also from me, and harm befalls him, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.”

Genesis 44:30-31, “Now, therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us, since his life is bound up in the lad's life, when he sees that the lad is not with us, he will die.

Thus your servants will bring the gray hair of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow.”

Genesis 44:32, “For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then let me bear the blame before my father forever.’”

Genesis 44:33, “Now, therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers.”