Genesis 45.21-24-Joseph Gives Provisions, Gifts and a Warning to His Brothers
Wednesday March 14, 2007
Genesis: Genesis 45:21-24-Joseph Gives Provisions, Gifts and a Warning to His Brothers
Tape # 296
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 45:1.
This evening we will continue with our study of Genesis 45.
Thus far, by way of review of the chapter, we have noted the following:
In Genesis 45:1-4, we saw Joseph revealing his true identity to his brothers after hearing Judah offer himself as a substitute for Benjamin so that his father would not have to suffer the loss of another child.
Then, in Genesis 4:5-8, we noted the “magnanimity” of Joseph towards his brothers and saw Joseph reassuring his brothers that he will not exact revenge upon them.
Instead he reveals to them that their cruel treatment of him twenty two years before was a part of God’s plan to deliver their family from starvation.
This was followed by Genesis 45:9-11 where we saw Joseph sending a message to his father Israel through his brothers to find refuge from the famine in Egypt.
In Genesis 45:12-15, we saw Joseph embracing and talking to his brothers before their departure for Canaan.
Last evening, we studied Genesis 45:16-20 and read that Joseph’s brothers receive an invitation from Pharaoh to live in Egypt.
This evening we will note Genesis 45:21-24 and read of Joseph giving provisions, gifts and a warning to his brothers before they depart Egypt for Canaan.
Genesis 45:1, “Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried, ‘Have everyone go out from me.’ So there was no man with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers.”
Genesis 45:2, “He wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard of it.”
Genesis 45:3, “Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?’ But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence.”
Genesis 45:4, “Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Please come closer to me.’ And they came closer. And he said, ‘I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.’”
Genesis 45:5, “Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.”
Genesis 45:6, “For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.”
Genesis 45:7, “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.”
Genesis 45:8, “Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.”
Genesis 45:9, “Hurry and go up to my father, and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, ‘God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay.’”
Genesis 45:10, “You shall live in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children's children and your flocks and your herds and all that you have.”
Genesis 45:11, “There I will also provide for you, for there are still five years of famine to come, and you and your household and all that you have would be impoverished.”
Genesis 45:12, “Behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth which is speaking to you.”
Genesis 45:13, “Now you must tell my father of all my splendor in Egypt, and all that you have seen; and you must hurry and bring my father down here.”
Genesis 45:14, “Then he fell on his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck.”
Genesis 45:15, “He kissed all his brothers and wept on them, and afterward his brothers talked with him.”
Genesis 45:16, “Now when the news was heard in Pharaoh's house that Joseph's brothers had come, it pleased Pharaoh and his servants.”
Genesis 45:17-18, “Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: load your beasts and go to the land of Canaan, and take your father and your households and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you will eat the fat of the land.’”
Genesis 45:19, “Now you are ordered, ‘Do this: take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father and come.’”
Genesis 45:20, “Do not concern yourselves with your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.”
Genesis 45:21, “Then the sons of Israel did so; and Joseph gave them wagons according to the command of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the journey.”
The statement “Then the sons of Israel did so” indicates that Joseph’s family accepted Pharaoh’s invitation to live in Egypt and that Joseph obeyed Pharaoh’s command to equip Joseph’s family with wagons for the journey from Canaan to Egypt.
This is also a summary statement and the details are recorded in the rest of the verse.
The designation “the sons of Israel” emphasizes the national identity of Israel/Jacob’s sons and not their personal identity as Jacob’s sons.
The nation of Israel was in its infancy at this time and this trip to Egypt would lead to their deliverance from the famine and relocation to Egypt for over four hundred years.
The brothers will enter Egypt as a nation in its infancy whereas their descendants will leave four hundred years later as a powerful nation.
The term “provisions” refers to food that was provided for Joseph’s family for their journey to and from Egypt.
Genesis 45:22, “To each of them he gave changes of garments, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of garments.”
Joseph continues to test his brothers to be sure there was no trace of jealousy left in their hearts by giving each of his half-brothers changes of garments but to Benjamin he gave 300 pieces of silver and five changes of garments.
Joseph’s brothers have learned the lesson of God’s sovereign grace and no longer get jealous over preferential treatment given to Rachel’s sons as demonstrated in that even after Joseph gave Benjamin five times as much food (See Genesis 43:34), they were still willing to be enslaved for him (See Genesis 44:13).
Jealousy is a mental attitude sin directed toward another, which is resentful, intolerant and suspicious of another’s success, possessions or relationships and is vigilant in maintaining or guarding something.
Jealousy is demonic since it originated in eternity past with Satan who was resentful and intolerant suspicious of the preincarnate Christ’s relationship with the angels and was vigilant in maintaining or guarding his influence over the angels, therefore, jealousy is demonic since it is Satanic viewpoint (See James 3:13-16).
Jealousy is also included in the list of sins produced by the old sin nature in both the believer and unbeliever (Rom. 1:29; Gal. 5:21; Titus 3:3; 1 Pet. 2:1).
Jealousy leads to murder (Rom. 1:29; Gal. 5:20) and to inordinate ambition and competition (Phil. 1:15; 1 Tim. 6:4).
Joseph’s brothers are not jealous of Benjamin like they were towards Joseph since they have been disciplined and trained by the Lord through providential circumstances and through the conscience of each brother for selling Joseph into slavery that it is against the will of God to be jealous towards another.
God the Holy Spirit has rebuked and disciplined Joseph’s brothers through providential circumstances and through the conscience of each brother for selling Joseph into slavery in order to advance all of them to further spiritual growth.
This discipline was a demonstration of the Lord’s love for Joseph’s brothers.
God disciplines His disobedient children by permitting adversity, trials, and irritations to come into their lives that are beyond their capacity to handle in order to get their attention and to focus upon their number one priority in life as children of God, which is conformity to the Father’s will.
God disciplines His disobedient children by permitting them to reap the fruits of their bad decisions so that they might learn that conformity to His will is the only way to true joy and happiness and blessing in life (Ezek. 16:43; Gal. 6:7-8).
Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”
Galatians 6:8, “For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
The Holy Spirit disciplines the disobedient child of God by rebuking them with the Word of God as it is communicated by the pastor-teacher in the local assembly and the purpose of such rebuke is to conform the believer to the will of his heavenly Father, which results in blessing and true happiness.
2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
Hebrews 4:12, “The Word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit, and of the joints and the marrow, and is a critic of thoughts and intents of the heart.”
The Lord Jesus Christ disciplines the believer in the sense that He rebukes, punishes and trains the believer because He personally and affectionately loves the believer.
Revelation 3:19, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.”
Revelation 3:20-21 teaches that the Lord disciplines us not only because He loves us and but also because He wants to reward us.
Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.”
Revelation 3:21, “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”
Just as any good father disciplines his children because he loves them, so God the Father disciplines His children because He loves them.
If God did not train us when we are obedient and punishes us when we are disobedient, then we would be illegitimate children, thus divine discipline in the sense of punishment and training is the mark of a child of God.
Hebrews 12:5, “and you have forgotten the exhortation, which is addressed to you as sons, ‘MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM.’”
Hebrews 12:6, “FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.”
Hebrews 12:7, “It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?”
Hebrews 12:8, “But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.”
Hebrews 12:9, “Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?”
Hebrews 12:10, “For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.”
Hebrews 12:11, “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
Hebrews 12:10 teaches us that ultimately, God disciplines us because He wants us to share in His character, which is meant by the phrase “share His holiness.”
We are not to get angry or bitter when God disciplines us through the Word, or adversity and underserved suffering but rather we are to listen to what God is trying to say to us and to learn the lesson that He is teaching us so that we might acquire the character of our heavenly Father.
Proverbs 3:11-12, “My son, do not reject the discipline of the LORD or loathe His reproof, for whom the LORD loves He reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.”
Bruce K. Waltke commenting on Joseph’s gift of clothing to his brothers, writes, “Clothing is an important symbol in the Joseph story (cf. 37:3, 31-33; 38:14, 19; 39:12-18; 41:14, 42). Here it functions as a fitting token of Joseph’s affection and esteem for his brothers (cf. 2 Kings 5:5, 22), for it stands in striking contrast to their stripping his robe off him (see 37:23)…The change also symbolizes their new situation (cf. 38:14; 41:14, 42): delivered from guilt, hostility, and famine, with the prospect of abundant provisions in the best of Egypt” (Genesis, A Commentary, page 572, Zondervan).
Nahum M. Sarna writes, “Since an article of apparel had featured prominently in the tale of hostility between Joseph and his brothers, it is only fitting that their reconciliation should be marked by a gift of apparel” (The JPS Torah Commentary, page 311, The Jewish Publication Society).
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.
Joseph’s gift of silver to Benjamin is significant since Joseph was sold by his brothers to the Midianites for twenty pieces of silver whereas now Joseph uses the silver to bless his brother and not sell him.
Genesis 45:23, “To his father he sent as follows: ten donkeys loaded with the best things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and sustenance for his father on the journey.”
“The best things of Egypt” denotes a wide variety of vessels that can be for household use or trade or used to store a variety of objects ranging from food to documents and can include various types of implements and equipment.
With this gift, Joseph is honoring his father and expressing his deep personal love and affection for his father.
Exodus 20:12, “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.”
Genesis 45:24, “So he sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, ‘Do not quarrel on the journey.’”
The prohibition “do not quarrel on the journey” reveals that Joseph understood the principle that all men have a sin nature.
Every person born into the world without exception received the imputation of Adam’s original sin in the Garden of Eden, thus giving everyone the nature of Adam, which is always disobedient to God, making them all physically alive but spiritually dead, having no capacity whatsoever to have a relationship with God.
Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned (when Adam sinned).”
But the fact that every member of the human race possesses a sin nature does mean that the entire human race is qualified for grace, which is all that God is free to do in imparting unmerited blessings to anyone who trusts in Jesus Christ as his or her Savior.
Galatians 3:22, “But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”
Romans 11:32, “For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.”
In the New Testament, the old sin nature is called the “old self, the flesh,” which according to the Scriptures is being corrupted meaning that it is not getting better nor can it be rehabilitated but rather it is getting worse and worse everyday.
The old sin nature resides in the genetic structure of the human body and this is why the apostle Paul in Romans 6:6 calls it the “body of sin” and this is why we need a resurrection body.
The nature of Adam tempts the soul of every human being to sin against God and when a person obeys the sin nature’s desires, it produces personal sins-mental, verbal and overt.
1 Peter 2:11, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.”
The Father solved the problem of our old sin nature when He crucified our old sin nature with Christ at the cross and gave us the nature of Christ at the moment of salvation.
Romans 6:6, “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.”
We, as believers are to accept by faith the fact that we have been crucified with Christ and raised with Him by considering ourselves dead to the sin nature but alive to God because of our union with Christ Jesus.
In order to experience victory over the sin nature, the believer must obey the teaching of the Holy Spirit that the believer has been crucified with Christ and raised with Christ.
Romans 6:11, “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
The believer sins because he chooses to disobey the teaching of the Word of God that his sin nature was crucified with Christ at the Cross and thus allows the sin nature to control and influence his soul so that he produces mental, verbal and overt acts of sin.
The believer’s sin nature will not be totally eradicated until he physically dies or when the rapture of the church takes place when the believer will receive a resurrection body to replace the body he now has, which contains the old sin nature.
1 Corinthians 15:53, “For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
Genesis 45:24, “So he sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, ‘Do not quarrel on the journey.’”
This prohibition would prevent his brothers from making recriminations against one another regarding their selling Joseph into slavery, especially when explaining it to their father.
Joseph wants to prevent his brothers from placing the blame on each other like Reuben did in Genesis 42:22.
The prohibition “do not quarrel on the journey” implies that Joseph expects his brothers to forgive one another just as he has forgiven them (See Matthew 18:21-35).