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Genesis 43: 32-34: An abundant table

^“32 They served him by himself, the brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, for that is detestable to Egyptians. ³³ The men had been seated before him in the order of their ages, from the firstborn to the youngest; and they looked at each other in astonishment. ³⁴ When portions were served to them from Joseph’s table, Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as anyone else’s. So they feasted and drank freely with him.” NIV

Jesus, our Heavenly ‘Joseph’, in His grace and mercy, invites us to eat and drink ‘’freely’’ at His abundant table. We don’t deserve to be there, but He provides for us all the same.

Note here in the text: an explanation, a source of wonder, and a test:

• The explanation concerns the Egyptian eating habits (32). It’s a cultural note. One commentator I read said that this scruple did not simply pertain to the Hebrews; it was, he said ‘’detestable’’ to Egyptians to eat with any foreigners;
• The source of wonder was that this high-ranking Egyptian got it right in terms of their age order (33). What was going on here? There are times, are there not, when we can feel that Jesus knows us through and through? We don’t just believe it as a theological truth, but we know it in a deep down way. (Incidentally, this makes me think about that evidence we see in the universe, which indicates the activity of a higher intelligence. At very least, it surely causes us to question);
• As for the test – well, earlier, when Joseph was favoured, what did the brothers do? How did they treat him? So what was their response going to be to Benjamin’s special treatment? (34). Joseph set things up so that history would essentially repeat itself. It would show if these men had changed.

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.

Genesis 42:36: ‘When all things seems against me…’

^“36 Their father Jacob said to them, ‘You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!’” NIV

You can understand Jacob exclaiming, ‘’Everything is against me!’’ That was pretty much how it looked. He was now an old man. He had suffered loss upon loss in his later years, and he couldn’t face another. He felt backed into a corner. It can be like this for you and me too. In the middle of your story – even two thirds the way through – everything may appear bleak; the clouds have come down and you can’t see the way. But it’s not the end of the story.

Because we know more than Jacob at this point, we are aware that everything was not against him. Behind the ‘frowning providence’ there was a ‘smiling face’. There was a big picture drama unfolding, and it concerned saving a lot of people. It was about more than one person.

There may come times where you feel that everything is against you. But the truth will always be that:

’…in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose’’ (Romans 8:28).

Even in the mess Jacob was facing (some of it of his own making), a greater purpose was being worked out. At the time, Jacob could only see the tangled threads at the back of the tapestry, but he would eventually get to see the other side, as will we all.

Genesis 42:25-38: Goodness and severity.

²⁵ Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, to put each man’s silver back in his sack, and to give them provisions for their journey. After this was done for them, ²⁶ they loaded their grain on their donkeys and left. ²⁷ At the place where they stopped for the night one of them opened his sack to get feed for his donkey, and he saw his silver in the mouth of his sack. ²⁸ ‘My silver has been returned,’ he said to his brothers. ‘Here it is in my sack.’ Their hearts sank and they turned to each other trembling and said, ‘What is this that God has done to us?’ ²⁹ When they came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them. They said, ³⁰ ‘The man who is lord over the land spoke harshly to us and treated us as though we were spying on the land. ³¹ But we said to him, “We are honest men; we are not spies. ³² We were twelve brothers, sons of one father. One is no more, and the youngest is now with our father in Canaan.”³³ ‘Then the man who is lord over the land said to us, “This is how I will know whether you are honest men: leave one of your brothers here with me, and take food for your starving households and go. ³⁴ But bring your youngest brother to me so I will know that you are not spies but honest men. Then I will give your brother back to you, and you can trade in the land.”’³⁵ As they were emptying their sacks, there in each man’s sack was his pouch of silver! When they and their father saw the money pouches, they were frightened. ³⁶ Their father Jacob said to them, ‘You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!’³⁷ Then Reuben said to his father, ‘You may put both of my sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him back.’³⁸ But Jacob said, ‘My son will not go down there with you; his brother is dead and he is the only one left. If harm comes to him on the journey you are taking, you will bring my grey head down to the grave in sorrow.’ NIV

‘’Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God’’ (Romans 11:22).

We behold both goodness and severity, kindness and sternness, in Joseph’s treatment of his brothers. How abundantly good he was to them, in providing for them. Many of us will see in our own experiences a reflection of what happened to Joseph’s brothers; we find our ‘’silver’’ back in our sacks. We just can’t out-give God. In fact, we regularly find we are on the receiving end of far more than we gave. If we’re honest, it can be almost frightening at times, to be a recipient of God’s lavish generosity. It’s wonderful, but it also fills you in awe, and you feel so undeserving.

At the same time, Joseph showed ‘tough love’ to his brothers. This reminds me of the words in Hebrews 12 about discipline being an expression of love (Hebrews 12:5,6). The author goes on to write:

‘’No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it’’ (11).

When you eventually experience the ‘’Later on’’, you realise that behind the stern discipline there was always a loving and good heart.

‘Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust Him for His grace;

Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face’ (From ‘God moves in a mysterious way’ by William Cowper).

PRAYER: ‘So I thank God for the mountains, and I thank Him for the valleys, and I thank Him for the trials He took me through. For if I’d never had a problem, I’d never know that God could solve them; I’d never know what faith in God can do’ (from the song: ‘Through it all…I’ve learned to trust in Jesus…’)

Genesis 42:9-24: Harsh treatment.

We may feel that Joseph was unduly hard on his brothers to treat them as he did. On the face of it, this seems quite cruel behaviour. But the twenty fourth verse provides an insight into his heart. He loved these men. He did all he did purposefully – just as the Lord Himself disciplines us for our good (Hebrews 12).

‘The true interpretation of Joseph’s treatment of his brethren is to be found in the supposition that he repeated toward them, as nearly as possible, the behaviour that they had shown to himself at the pit’s mouth, and this with no thought of retaliation, but that their consciences might be awakened, and that he might discover if they would deal differently with Benjamin than they had dealt with him. He needed to be sure of their repentance before he could trust himself to them again. His purpose, therefore, was in part secured when he heard them saying to each other in the dear old home-tongue, which they never expected him to understand, ‘’We are verily guilty because of our brother.’’ So God deals with us. The east wind blows bitterly in our faces…but behind them all is the tenderest love…’ F.B. Meyer: ‘Devotional Commentary’, p.30.

Joseph knew that Benjamin had to come to Egypt, because, so far, only ten brothers had bowed to him, but the dream said ‘’eleven’’: 37:9). When we are immersed in God’s Word we can know what we can expect, and so live by faith, and not by sight.

Genesis 42:7-8: A distant echo.

^“7 As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. “Where do you come from?” he asked.“From the land of Canaan,” they replied, “to buy food.”⁸ Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him.”

There is a distant echo of the story of Jesus in verse 8.

Although twenty-two years had passed, Joseph could easily recognise his brothers. But he was in Egyptian dress and spoke through an interpreter. They could not have conceived that this great Egyptian ruler was their long lost little brother Joseph.

Jesus came as Israel’s Messiah, but His ‘bretheren’, by and large, did not recognise Him. Their eyes were blinded.

However, there is coming a day of glorious revelation – something else paralleled in the Joseph story. Stay tuned!

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, I pray for that day when all Israel will be saved.