Genesis 44--Joseph Tests His Brothers

Joseph Tests His Brothers​
44 Then he commanded the steward of his house, “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, 2 and put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, with his money for the grain.” And he did as Joseph told him.

3 As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away with their donkeys. 4 They had gone only a short distance from the city. Now Joseph said to his steward, “Up, follow after the men, and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good? 5 Is it not from this that my lord drinks, and by this that he practices divination? You have done evil in doing this.’”

6 When he overtook them, he spoke to them these words. 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! 8 Behold, the money that we found in the mouths of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord's house? 9 Whichever of your servants is found with it shall die, and we also will be my lord's servants.” 10 He said, “Let it be as you say: he who is found with it shall be my servant, and the rest of you shall be innocent.” 11 Then each man quickly lowered his sack to the ground, and each man opened his sack. 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.”

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To set the scene from last time, Joseph's brothers have returned to Egypt and brought Benjamin, Joseph's full-blooded brother that he's never met, with them.  Simeon has been released back to them, they've given Joseph gifts and Joseph has thrown them a party for them where he sat them by birthright and he gave five times as much food to Benjamin as to the others.  At that time they had also tried to clear up any misunderstanding about their money being returned to them during their first visit, but Joseph through his steward, gave the praise to God and said that it was God who returned the money to their bags and that he had received payment in full.  The sons of Israel are about to depart with some even stranger stories to tell their father than the first time, but Joseph is not done with the family reunion and devises a way to try to get at least Benjamin to have to stay behind and it is a test of the brothers to see if they will abandon Benjamin and treat him in the same way that they had treated Joseph, or if their hearts had changed at all over the years, as he had already overheard them saying that they believed all these bad things were happening to them as punishment from God for what they had done to Joseph.

So, with the help of his steward, Joseph once again fills their sacks with grain and returns their money and he instructed the steward to put Joseph's silver cup in the mouth of Benjamin's sack--as he's going to claim they are thieves and the one who is found to have the cup must stay behind to be punished, and this is how he will try to spend time with Benjamin but also test his brothers to see if they will fight for him or abandon him.

The brothers are sent away at first light with sacks about to burst they are so full.  Joseph waits a little while and then pretends to find the silver cup missing and sends his men after them to overtake them and bring them back.  The brothers strongly protest and claim they are men of integrity who even brought back the money that had been "accidentally" returned to them the first time and they would speak without thinking, but correctly according to the custom of the day that whoever was found to be the thief should die--we saw this same kind of promise from Jacob when he was fleeing Laban's house and Laban accused someone of Jacob's household to be the thief--so it is likely his sons learned this from their father.

The servants of Joseph said, "Let it be as you say," and began searching the sacks from the oldest to the youngest and when the cup was found in Benjamin's sack they tore their clothes--a sign of mourning and grief--and they all returned to Egypt with him.  They did not just give him to the Egyptians and continue back to Canaan and make up some story for their father about how their brother had died.  I'm sure Joseph's plan was that if they had not changed and still acted in this way that he would be saving his brother Benjamin from them and that he was better off with Joseph than with with half-brothers like that.

Notice now that Judah is identified as the leader of the group, even though he is not the oldest--it says "Judah and his brothers."  This is because Judah is going to step up and be the leader that he promised Jacob he would be an we see now why the Hebrew people would eventually be known by the tribe of their royal family, Judah, and would later be called "Jews."   Joseph indeed puts on quite a show for them and claims that his gods have revealed the theft and the perpetrator to him through divination (witchcraft).  Judah speaks for the whole group and no longer argues their innocence, but instead claims that Joseph has found out just how truly wicked these men are--again, I think this is part of guilty conscience for what they did to Joseph and that they believe God is now finally punishing them justly for that crime, and Judah offers that all of them should stay behind as Joseph's prisoners, but Joseph, again, testing his brothers, says that he's only interested in punishing the one who was guilty and that the others should return to their father in peace.

Judah speaks in a way that no one would normally speak to royalty and pleads for the life of his brother Benjamin and reminds Joseph that Benjamin is there because Joseph insisted on it, and because they opened their big mouths and told him about Benjamin when he was trying to get them to admit what they had done to Joseph.  Judah reminded Joseph of how they had said loss of this son would kill their father and there was no "returning in peace" to their father because this would literally be the death of him, and Judah pleads to be taken in place of his brother Benjamin as substitute for a crime he didn't commit--just as one day the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, who would also be known as The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, would take the place of all his "brothers"--the human race--in His penal substitutionary atonement that He made on the cross.  He would die in our place for the sins that had rightfully condemned us to death--not even some setup like this where we were innocent.  We also see that the hearts of Judah and the others have changed as they are well aware that their actions would have a negative impact on their father and that this would be the "last straw" for him, and while the text is not clear whether Jacob would simply lose the will to live and would die of natural causes or would be in so much grief and emotional pain that he would rather commit suicide than live with the loss of Joseph and Benjamin that Joseph can now see that he cannot go through with his plan and cause such damage to his family and especially his father.  Next time we'll see Joseph finally break down and reveal himself to his brothers and will send them back along with a caravan that can bring Jacob back (as he's too old to walk and Joseph wanted him to ride in style), and we'll once again see a genealogy, and we should know what that means by now.

Yes, we are approaching not just the end of the narrative of Joseph, but the end of the "Book of Beginnings," Genesis.  We have seen the beginning of creation, and the specific story of the beginning of man and woman.  We have seen the origins of sin, and the origins of God's plan of redemption.  We have seen the origins of God's judgement against the wickedness of men and the origins of God's everlasting covenant with man to never flood the entire earth in judgment again.  We have seen the origins of the nations, and the origins of a chosen people from among the nations through whom a promised descendant would bring unity and peace as He would draw all peoples to Himself, make them new creations and make them a royal priesthood in the order of Melchizedek.  We have seen the origins of several Abrahamic peoples--The Ishmaelites, the Edomites, and the Hebrews who we now see are 12 sons, each that would have a large clan, and we have seen God's covenant with the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give them land and blessings--a covenant which will ultimately be fulfilled in the New Heaven and the New Earth that we see in the book of Revelation.  In many ways the end and the beginning are tied together and we cannot understand what it is that God is restoring unless we understand what it is that sin corrupted and destroyed.  God is in the process of making all things new, but especially making a new and better everlasting covenant with all of "true Israel"--both Jews and Gentiles that make up the Church, the Bride of Christ, and He has gone to make a place for us that is fitting for us to live with Him in all eternity where we will not just be freed from the power of sin, but the very presence of it.  But be warned that a place has also been prepared for the devil and his angels who rebelled against God and caused others to do the same.  All those who die in their rebellion without being born again will likewise experience the same eternal punishment and the "second death" that was meant only for the devil and his angels--any men that go there must choose to go there willingly by refusing to obey God and His commandments and refusing the free gift of salvation offered through the death of Jesus, the one and only Son of God.  This is the story of the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation.  Continue with us as we continue to study the Bible to learn more about who God is, who man is, and what God requires of us to inherit eternal life and not the eternal punishment that our rebellion so much deserves.  This salvation is freely available to all, but only effective for those who believe and receive it by faith.  Simply knowing the truth is not enough--even the demons know the truth and continue to live in rebellion.  If you'd like to learn more about this, please contact me through Facebook or through Discord.  I'd love to share with you this most important truth--the story of Christ that all of history centers around and the only hope for humanity individually and corporately.