It
has been a few weeks since we have been in this series, so I would like to take
a second to review. Genesis 37-50 is the family account of Jacob, and is ultimately a
story of God’s providence. That is why
we have called this series, “The
Certainty of Providence,” because we learn here, as we do in the rest of
the Bible, that God’s providential working in our lives is something that is
certain. We can be certain that God
works all things together for the glory of Himself and the good of His
people.
So
far we have seen God making a godly man out of Joseph in Egypt, and now we are
seeing Him prepare the family of Israel to be a godly nation there. He wants to make them this great nation in
order to display His glory to the rest of the world through them. So we said God
is after both the physical survival of this family, and their spiritual
survival. He wants to both feed them and
change them.
To
do so, God providentially works to bring about faith and repentance in Jacob
and his sons in order to reconcile the family to Himself and to one
another. Likewise, the providential
working of God is intended to build our faith and bring about repentance in our
lives, which is necessary for reconciliation with God and one another. These are ultimately the two heart conditions
that God is after in His providence. Providence
was compared to a dance in Joseph’s case, here is will be compared to a test in
the case of his family.
I. We Must
Pass the Test of Faith (43:1-34)
– Can God be trusted? Is He good?
a.
Counting the Cost in Canaan (43:1-14): especially 11-14
When
supplies run out, Jacob’s family is put in a corner and forced to throw
themselves upon the mercy of God and let the chips fall where they may. Notice first the emergence of Judah as the
leader of the brother because this will be important later and then also notice
Jacob’s plea in 43:11-14 that really
encapsulates this section: [11] Then their father Israel said to
them, “If it must be so, then do this: take some of the choice fruits of the
land in your bags, and carry a present down to the man, a little balm and a
little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds. [12] Take double
the money with you. Carry back with you the money that was returned in the
mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was an oversight. [13] Take also your
brother, and arise, go again to the man. [14] May God Almighty grant you
mercy before the man, and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin. And
as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.”
God
here is both breaking Jacob’s
favoritism and building his
faith. What God wants Jacob to do is to let
go of Benjamin and to take hold of Him! This will require faith in God on Jacob’s
part. It will require a faith that God
is trustworthy, good, and sovereign. But
not only is God building Jacob’s faith here, He is also building the faith of
the brothers (they are returning to Egypt at great risk).
Church,
many times what feels like the breaking point in our lives is exactly the place
where God wants to build our faith. It
is there that God wants us to let go of our idols and to take hold of Him. Will you?
b.
Counting Blessings in Egypt (43:15-34): especially 23, 29-30:
Here
we see Joseph’s brothers are met at every turn with the mercy and compassion of
Joseph here. When they try to return the
money from the previous trip that had them afraid to return, Joseph’s steward
tells them that their God has “put
treasure in your sacks for you” (23)!
He blesses Benjamin when he sees him and prepares a feast for these
brothers in which Joseph feeds them from his own table! These blessings are meant to build the faith
of these brothers as God carries them from one crisis to another.
What
I hope you will see here is that God is faithful to show us His goodness even
in the darkest of valleys if we will open our eyes to see it. Make no mistake; this is a trial and a crisis
of faith for this family. And God is
pointing them to Himself every step of the way.
II. We Must
Pass the Test of Repentance (44:1-34)
– Has faith in His goodness changed my
heart?
a.
A Familiar Scene (44:1-12):
No
this was hinted at in 43:34 (Benjamin’s portion and their drinking), but here
Joseph brilliantly reconstructs the same scenario that he found himself in
decades earlier in order to test his brothers.
Will these brothers, who betrayed their father’s favorite son for silver
coins, betray their father’s favorite son over a silver cup? This is what it means to pass the test of
repentance: to become people who have changed.
b.
An Unfamiliar Scene (44:13-34):
[12] And he searched, beginning with the
eldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin's sack.
[13] Then they tore their clothes, and every man loaded his donkey, and
they returned to the city.
[14] When Judah and his brothers came to
Joseph's house, he was still there. They fell before him to the ground.
[15] Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Do you
not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination?” [16] And Judah
said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how can we clear
ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; behold, we are my
lord's servants, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found.”
[17] But he said, “Far be it from me that I should do so! Only the man in
whose hand the cup was found shall be my servant. But as for you, go up in
peace to your father.”
[18] Then Judah went up to him and said, “Oh,
my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord's ears, and let not
your anger burn against your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself.
[19] My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father, or a
brother?’ [20] And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and
a young brother, the child of his old age. His brother is dead, and he alone is
left of his mother's children, and his father loves him.’ [21] Then you
said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’
[22] We said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, for if he
should leave his father, his father would die.’ [23] Then you said to your
servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see
my face again.’
[24] “When we went back to your servant my
father, we told him the words of my lord. [25] And when our father said,
‘Go again, buy us a little food,’ [26] we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our
youngest brother goes with us, then we will go down. For we cannot see the
man's face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ [27] Then your servant
my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. [28] One
left me, and I said, “Surely he has been torn to pieces,” and I have never seen
him since. [29] If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to
him, you will bring down my gray hairs in evil to Sheol.’
[30] “Now therefore, as soon as I come to
your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound
up in the boy's life, [31] as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us,
he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant
our father with sorrow to Sheol. [32] For your servant became a pledge of
safety for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you,
then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life.’ [33] Now
therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my
lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers. [34] For how can I go
back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would
find my father.”
Repentance
is seen on the part of the brothers: they tear their clothes and they refuse to
abandon Benjamin Also, in the longest
speech in Genesis, Judah puts forth a passionate plea that displays the change of heart that is typical of
repentance. Judah, out of his love for
his father, offers himself as a substitute in Benjamin’s place, showing a
transformation “from one who sells his
brother as a slave to one who is willing to be the slave for his brother.”[1] Again, this is what it means to pass the
test of repentance: to become a people who have changed. This is what God is after in His providence:
to take dysfunctional families and people and make them a light to the world.
The
emergence of Judah, which is all over these chapters, is also significant because
he is giving us a shadow of what the ultimate offspring of Judah, the Lion of
the tribe of Judah, would one day do for all of us. Revelation
5:5-10: [5] And one of the
elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the
Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven
seals.” [6] And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the
elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and
with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the
earth. [7] And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who
was seated on the throne. [8] And when he had taken the scroll, the four
living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each
holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the
saints.
[9] And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy
are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by
your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people
and nation, [10] and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and
they shall reign on the earth.”
God
in His providence works to build our faith, to break our idolatry, and to
change our lives. Will you let go of
what you hold on to and lay hold of God’s grace by trusting and surrendering
your life to Him today? If you will, you
will begin to experience the goodness of God in your darkest trials.
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