The Brother's Return

The longer you live the more you will see your life coming full circle. One day you wake up and realize just how much like your parents you have become. Genesis 42 begins the arc of Joseph’s life where his circle is almost complete.

MPT: Joseph’s brothers have lived with the slow decay of guilt for 20 years.

MPS: God’s grace is greater than your guilt.

The Brother’s Sent to Joseph

Jacob’s Authority (v. 1-3)

We don’t know how Jacob found out that there was grain in Egypt.

The famine that Joseph said would happen in chapter 41 has also struck his family in Canaan.

41:57 reminds us that the famine was severe, and Jacob recognizes this as a life or death situation.

Question: “Why are you just standing around looking at each other?”

You can almost hear the parental frustration in his voice.

How many times as a parent have you given your child a command and they just sit there and stare at you?

It is like they are stuck at a loading screen.

The difference is that Jacobs sons were in their 40s and 50s by this point.

Command: “Go buy some food for us so that we don’t die.”

Jacob’s command to his grown children who have families of their own reveals that he is still considered the patriarch of this family.

The brother’s obedience to that command reveals that however much they disliked their father they still considered themselves to be under his authority.

Jacob’s Fear and Favoritism (v. 4)

Jacob did not send Benjamin for fear that something would happen to him.

It is evident that the loss of Joseph still greatly affects the thinking and emotional state of Jacob.

This also shows that Jacob hasn’t really learned from his mistakes and that of his father.

The Brother’s First Audience with Joseph

Recognition (v. 5-8)

There was a lot of people traveling to Egypt at this time, and 10 sons of Jacob were among them. (v. 5)

The first way in which we see Joseph’s life come full circle is his brother’s bowing before him in v. 6

An important point to the narrative is given in v. 7& 8, that Joseph recognized them, but they did not recognize him.

So Joseph makes a split second decision to not reveal himself to his brothers and continues acting as a stranger toward them.

He speaks roughly to them probably not because of who they were, but because that was his job. It was part of his job to weed out the spies from those who were honestly just there to buy food. Thus to further his disguise he speaks harshly to them.

Interrogation (v. 7b)

Remembrance

Then, Joseph remembered the dreams.

It probably doesn’t surprise Joseph that they came true, after all, the butler, baker, and Pharaoh’s dreams all came true as well.

This also seems to be Joseph’s light bulb moment, because it is when he remembers his dreams that he starts putting his plan into place.

Rupture (v. 9b- 17)

You are spies who have come to scope out our vulnerabilities!

No, we just came to buy food, we are all brothers. (v. 10, 11)

No, you are spies (v. 12)

They then begin to panic and hope that if they give enough details about their family that Joseph will see their story as plausible. (v. 13)

12 brothers

The youngest is with our father

One is no more. They didn’t know they were talking to the no more.

You are spies (v. 14) - they are beginning to sound like siblings.

Joseph’s test

If what you say is true then you bring your youngest brother that you claim exists and prove yourselves honest.

9 of you will stay here in prison until the youngest arrives.

One of you will go fetch him.

So, to let them chew on it for a while he puts them all in prison for three days.

Well, doesn’t that seem kind of mean? It was much less than they deserved.

For all Joseph knew they did have some nefarious plan in the works. He had every reason not to trust them both as their brother and as the governor.

So, what is ruptured (destroyed).

Their plan

Their confidence

Joseph is trying to put them in a place where only the truth will save them.

He is making them vulnerable.

The Brother’s Second Audience with Joseph

Requirements (v. 18-20)

Joseph on the third day “ok, I have thought it over, and because I am a God-fearing man I will make a compromise with you. (v. 18)

Instead of 9 of you being confined and 1 of you returning 9 of you can return and one of you will remain confined. (v. 19)

But you still have to bring your youngest brother back.

From Joseph’s perspective if they don’t return for the one left behind they are just as bad as they were when he left so many years ago.

Reckoning (v. 21-24)

This is happening to us because of what we did to Joseph.

Reuben: “I told you this would happen!” (v. 22)

20 years later they still feel the immense weight of their guilt because of what they did to Joseph.

Can you imagine living with that for 20 years?

I wonder if every bad thing that happened to them for the last twenty years they thought it was because of what they did to Joseph.

Something else they didn’t know was that Joseph could understand them. And what we find is not a man filled with rage or bitterness but a man simply overwhelmed by the emotion of it all. (v. 23, 24)

Refund (v. 25-28)

Why did Joseph give them their money back?

Two options:

To keep pushing them to their breaking point.

Or as a simple act of kindness

The text doesn’t tell us Joseph’s motive, but it does tell us how the brothers interpreted this circumstance. (v. 28)

What is God doing to us?” - People who live in a constant state of guilt tend to view everything through the lens of that guilt.

It causes them to become suspicious of the good

And every bad thing becomes some sort of punishment.

If that is you then please hear me, that is the wrong way to view the world and your life.

The Brother’s Return and Report to Jacob (v. 29-38)

Report (v. 29-35)

They report back to Jacob all that had happened to them.

In reporting back to Jacob, they mention that they protested their honesty before they divulged details of their family, whereas in v 11 the order is reversed. It is as though they wish to break the most sensitive news to Jacob at the last possible moment.

Response (v. 36-38)

This all-too-bland account of their trip to Egypt, designed to allay Jacob’s fears, seems to have left him unpersuaded, for no comment by him on their mission is recorded. He must have thought, “Whatever they say, Simeon has not come home and Benjamin is now being demanded too.”

The brothers have sold Simeon into slavery and are now pretending to be dismayed only to cover their tracks and lay the ground for another coup

Guilty feelings are useful when they drive us to repentance. However, Satan can also use guilty feelings to drive us away from God. Second Corinthians 7:10 says, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” Worldly guilt is filled with condemnation and hopelessness. It tells us that we are bad and nothing will make us good enough. It lies to us about the character of God, insisting that we must try to earn the favor of a God who will never give it. Worldly sorrow hangs over our heads and colors our attitudes toward God.

If you remember anything from today remember these two things:

God’s grace is greater than whatever is the cause of your guilt.

God’s grace is greater than your guilt itself.