Home thoughts from abroad.wordpress.com

Genesis 43:24-31: Show, rather than tell.

^“24 The steward took the men into Joseph’s house, gave them water to wash their feet and provided fodder for their donkeys. ²⁵ They prepared their gifts for Joseph’s arrival at noon, because they had heard that they were to eat there. ²⁶ When Joseph came home, they presented to him the gifts they had brought into the house, and they bowed down before him to the ground. ²⁷ He asked them how they were, and then he said, ‘How is your aged father you told me about? Is he still living?’ ²⁸ They replied, ‘Your servant our father is still alive and well.’ And they bowed down, prostrating themselves before him.²⁹ As he looked about and saw his brother Benjamin, his own mother’s son, he asked, ‘Is this your youngest brother, the one you told me about?’ And he said, ‘God be gracious to you, my son.’ ³⁰ Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his private room and wept there.³¹ After he had washed his face, he came out and, controlling himself, said, ‘Serve the food.’” NIV

‘Very often we move forward with dread into the unknown; but that dread is the child of ignorance. If only we realised that love is waiting for us there, which does not ask for balm and honey, for spices and myrrh, but just for ourselves, how much happier life would become! Lift up your hearts; a feast awaits you!’ F.B. Meyer: ‘Devotional Commentary’, p.31. An important principle for a story writer to grasp is ‘show, don’t tell.’ We have a fine example of that here. Although, at times, it may have seemed in the telling that Joseph was harsh with his brothers, we get these other glimpses into his heart, and we know that there is more going on than meets the eye. The writer of Genesis doesn’t have to tell us that Joseph loved his brothers; rather he shows us.

Once again we see the brothers at Joseph’s feet, and the point is underlined that the dreams were fulfilled (28). God keeps His Word. We can’t be reminded too often.

Genesis 43:19-23: Treasure in your sack.

^’19 So they went up to Joseph’s steward and spoke to him at the entrance to the house. ²⁰ “We beg your pardon, our lord,” they said, “we came down here the first time to buy food. ²¹ But at the place where we stopped for the night we opened our sacks and each of us found his silver—the exact weight—in the mouth of his sack. So we have brought it back with us. ²² We have also brought additional silver with us to buy food. We don’t know who put our silver in our sacks.”²³ “It’s all right,” he said. “Don’t be afraid. Your God, the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks; I received your silver.” Then he brought Simeon out to them.’NIV

Jesus said, ‘’Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you’’ (Luke 6:38).  It should be pointed out that Jesus said this in the context of forgiveness, but it tallies with other references in the Bible to God’s blessing on the generous (e.g. Proverbs 11:25).

I know that many Christians who seek to give generously, according to the Bible’s principles, find their ‘treasure’ back in their ‘sacks’. In fact a testimony you will hear again and again goes along these lines: ‘I found I couldn’t give it away. The more I gave, even more seemed to come back.’

Even if God works through people, as He did here (and as He tends to!), he is the One who sees your secret giving, and your needs, and He gets the treasure into your sack.

No-one should set out to follow God because they want to get rich. That’s a completely wrong motive. But those who trust the Lord prove that He supplies their needs – and often more besides. Who can fathom the mysteries of divine economics?

PRAYER: Lord God, please forgive me for those times when a lack of faith holds me back from giving freely. Help me to trust you, and be generous with all you have so abundantly given me.

Genesis 43:16-18: Guilty conscience.

At every new turn the brothers were apprehensive. They were carrying a burden of guilt, and it was too heavy for them. It needed to be rolled away. They knew what they’d done and they lived in fear of the judgment of God. ‘’Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘’I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’’ – and you forgave the guilt of my sin’’ (Psalm 32:1-5)

It is a grievous thing to live with a guilty conscience. But no one has to. In the wonderfully graphic picture painted by ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’, a person may come to the Cross, and the burden will fall from his or her shoulders, roll down the hill and into the empty tomb.

’If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness’’ (1 John 1:8,9)

Genesis 43:1-14: People can change.

“Now the famine was still severe in the land. ² So when they had eaten all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, ‘Go back and buy us a little more food.’³ But Judah said to him, ‘The man warned us solemnly, “You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.” ⁴ If you will send our brother along with us, we will go down and buy food for you. ⁵ But if you will not send him, we will not go down, because the man said to us, “You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.”’⁶ Israel asked, ‘Why did you bring this trouble on me by telling the man you had another brother?’⁷ They replied, ‘The man questioned us closely about ourselves and our family. “Is your father still living?” he asked us. “Do you have another brother?” We simply answered his questions. How were we to know he would say, “Bring your brother down here”?’⁸ Then Judah said to Israel his father, ‘Send the boy along with me and we will go at once, so that we and you and our children may live and not die. ⁹ I myself will guarantee his safety; you can hold me personally responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life. ¹⁰ As it is, if we had not delayed, we could have gone and returned twice.’¹¹ Then their father Israel said to them, ‘If it must be, then do this: put some of the best products of the land in your bags and take them down to the man as a gift – a little balm and a little honey, some spices and myrrh, some pistachio nuts and almonds. ¹² Take double the amount of silver with you, for you must return the silver that was put back into the mouths of your sacks. Perhaps it was a mistake. ¹³ Take your brother also and go back to the man at once. ¹⁴ And may God Almighty grant you mercy before the man so that he will let your other brother and Benjamin come back with you. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.’” NIV

Jacob was prepared to let Benjamin go to Egypt, all-be-it reluctantly, because of the strong leadership Judah showed. He took responsibility. He put himself on the line sacrificially. He stepped up. Could this really be the Judah who led the way in selling Joseph, back in chapter 37; whose moral behaviour was so despicable (chapter 38)? But people can change. Judah changed so much that his father would end up pronouncing a great blessing on him (48:9, 10). We can take heart from this, and allow it to strengthen our faith.

Tom Hale makes a helpful comment about Jacob:

He was ‘full of apprehension: his faith was weak. He could barely manage to pray for the return of Simeon and Benjamin; he couldn’t have imagined that he was about to get Joseph back as well!’ (‘Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.193).

PRAYER: Thank you, Sovereign Lord, that you are able to do far more than we can ask or imagine.