Written by: David Rose – Church Army
Genesis 42 v 29-34
The brothers went to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan and told him everything
that had happened. They said, “The master of that land spoke unkindly to us.
He accused us of spying on his country, but we told him that we were honest
men, not spies. We told him that we were ten of twelve brothers—sons of one
father. We said that one of our brothers was gone and that our youngest brother
was with our father in Canaan.
“Then the master of the land said to us, ‘Here is a way I can know you are honest
men: Leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain to feed your hungry
families, and go. And bring your youngest brother to me so I will know you are
not spies but honest men. Then I will give you back your brother whom you leave
with me, and you can move about freely in our land.’”
Notes
Joseph (he of Dreamcoat fame) was a powerful man in Egypt. There was a famine
and he was the man in charge of all the food. His family, his eleven brothers
and father Jacob all lived in Canaan, many miles away, and they thought that
Joseph was dead.
Now the famine that stalked the land of Egypt reached Canaan, so Jacob sent ten of his eleven remaining sons to Egypt to purchase food. They stood before Joseph and did not recognise him, but Joseph recognised them: the brothers who had sold him into slavery.
Joseph kept his identity secret, but decided to have some “revenge” on his brothers. Now they had returned home and they were trying to explain things to their father, trying to explain just what had happened. They were honest men, wrongly accused; they had done nothing wrong, but they had been treated “unkindly” by the master of that land. There is an element of righteous indignation in the way that the brothers told the tale. They had sold their brother into slavery, lied to their father, BUT they were honest men.
It’s horrible to be falsely accused, not to be believed. It’s important that our courts and tribunals do all that they can to make sure that injustice either does not happen or is rectified when it does.
We burn with a sense of anger when we are wrongly accused, but in that anger there needs to be a small voice that says “OK, this time I did not do it – BUT, I have done wrong; I have not always done right. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God – and that includes me.”
Prayer
Dear Lord,
I lift before you all those who have been wrongly accused or held without trial.
I pray for all those who have been punished unjustly, for things they have not
done or in ways that are out of all proportion to their crime.
I pray for the work of Amnesty International, for all those who support its
work, and all those prisoners they support.
I also remember that I am not perfect, that I need forgiveness.
In your mercy forgive me my inadequacies, and show me those things which need
to change in my life.
Thank you, Lord. Amen
Genesis 42 v 35-38
As the brothers emptied their sacks, each of them found his money in his sack.
When they and their father saw it, they were afraid.
Their father Jacob said to them, “You are robbing me of all my children. Joseph
is gone, Simeon is gone, and now you want to take Benjamin away, too. Everything
is against me.”
Then Reuben said to his father, “You may put my two sons to death if I don’t
bring Benjamin back to you. Trust him to my care, and I will bring him back
to you.”
But Jacob said, “I will not allow Benjamin to go with you. His brother is dead,
and he is the only son left from my wife Rachel. I am afraid something terrible
might happen to him during the trip to Egypt. Then I would be sad until the
day I die.”
Notes
Things get worse! While on the way home, one brother found his cash in the neck
of his sack. Now all the brothers found their money! The pain of the past, combined
with the pain and strain of the present, acted upon Jacob and brought him to
a grinding halt. Things were bad, and as far he could see things would only
get worse.
One son (Joseph) was dead. Another (Simeon) was prisoner in a foreign land. Now, they wanted him to put his youngest son (Benjamin) at risk – NO!
Reuben tried to reason with him. He even offered to make an awful sacrifice, offering his own sons as hostage for the safe keeping of his younger brother. But Jacob’s answer was still the same. NO!
Life sometimes presents us with situations that seem to have no
possible happy outcome.
We feel like the man who on a journey drove into a one-way system then realised
that he was lost. He asked directions and was told, “If I was you, I wouldn’t
start from here!” Jacob was where he was - he could not reverse time and go
back. No matter how painful, he had to act, but he could not. There was food
for now; maybe something would turn up.
Jesus was confronted by a terrible choice. As he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, he had to choose between two ways forward. One way would lead to pain and death. One way would leave humanity condemned to eternal separation from God.
“Abba Father! You can do all things. Take away this cup of suffering.
But do what you want, not what I want” (Mark 14 v 36).
Jesus took the way that led to the cross - death for him; life for us.
Prayer
Dear Lord,
We are sometimes confronted by hard, painful decisions.
It is so easy to do nothing and hope that something will turn up.
May we have your courage to make a decision.
May we have your wisdom to help us make the correct choice.
May we have your strength to live with the consequences of our choices.
Thank you, Lord. Amen
Genesis 43 v 1-6
Still no food grew in the land of Canaan. When Jacob’s family had eaten all
the grain they had brought from Egypt, Jacob said to them, “Go to Egypt again
and buy a little more grain for us to eat.”
But Judah said to Jacob, “The governor of that country strongly warned us, ‘If
you don’t bring your brother back with you, you will not be allowed to see me.’
If you will send Benjamin with us, we will go down and buy food for you. But
if you refuse to send Benjamin, we will not go. The governor of that country
warned us that we would not see him if we didn’t bring Benjamin with us.”
Israel said, “Why did you tell the man you had another brother? You have caused
me a lot of trouble.”
Notes
The Egyptian grain gave Jacob a respite – a time of relative calm when he could
pretend that there was no need to make a decision. But the crisis was only put
off, not dealt with.
“Still no food grew in the land of Canaan.” They had eaten all the grain and
they were hungry.
Jacob, who was also known as Israel, decided to send his nine eldest sons back to Egypt to purchase more grain. But Reuben pointed out the problem. No Benjamin with them would mean that the unkind master would not treat them as “honest men”; there would be no grain, no Simeon, and they would be arrested as spies.
Israel, who was also known as Jacob, got angry. He was being forced to make a decision that he did not wish to make. He had two options: either send Benjamin; or he and his people would starve. The task was set before him, but he could not, or would not do it. Rather than face the present and act for the future, he returned to the past. Blame his sons: “If only things were different”; “Why did you do that?!”
Jacob could not rewrite history, and no amount of blaming and arguing would change the present. People had done what they had done.
Sometimes it is right to demand justice for past wrongs, but it is too easy to spend all our energy arguing about who did or said what and who was to blame. There comes a moment when lines have to be drawn: the past left in the past, and people working together for the future. That is what God is prepared to do for us: draw a line, forgive our past and work with us for a better future. If we will let him.
Prayer
Dear Lord,
Help us to learn from the past, but not to be dominated by it.
Help us not to be so caught up in condemning the past actions of others that
we ourselves cannot act.
Help us to give our own past to you for forgiveness, and our futures to you
for completion.
Thank you, Lord. Amen.
Genesis 43 v 7-14
The brothers answered, “He questioned us carefully about ourselves and our family.
He asked us, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ We just
answered his questions. How could we know he would ask us to bring our other
brother to him?”
Then Judah said to his father Jacob, “Send Benjamin with me, and we will go
at once so that we, you, and our children may live and not die. I will guarantee
you that he will be safe, and I will be personally responsible for him. If I
don’t bring him back to you, you can blame me all my life. If we had not wasted
all this time, we could have already made two trips.”
Then their father Jacob said to them, “If it has to be that way, then do this:
Take some of the best foods in our land in your packs. Give them to the man
as a gift: some balm, some honey, spices, myrrh, pistachio nuts and almonds.
Take twice as much money with you this time, and take back the money that was
returned to you in your sacks last time. Maybe it was a mistake. And take Benjamin
with you. Now leave and go to the man. I pray that God Almighty will cause the
governor to be merciful to you and that he will allow Simeon and Benjamin to
come back with you. If I am robbed of my children, then I am robbed of them!”
Notes
Jacob had to make a decision. He could not put it off any longer, but he was
avoiding it by attacking the brothers’ actions last time they were in Egypt.
The next point is critical, because if the brothers took the bait, everything
could go into a downward spiral of: “It’s all your fault”, “No it’s not”, “Yes
it is!” - and nothing would happen except starvation.
At first it looked as if that was the way things were going. The brothers responded by defending their actions. It did not look good!
Then Judah spoke up, and he showed real leadership and focused
on what needed to be done:
“Send Benjamin with me, and blame me if things go wrong.” This brought Jacob
to a halt. Judah followed the lead he had been given and made a decision. He
stopped blaming people and started trusting - trusting his sons to do what was
right; trusting God to oversee the whole enterprise.
It took a lot of courage and self-control to break the cycle of blame that Jacob and his sons were moving into. It meant not answering back, swallowing the biting retort and focusing on the desired outcome - what he wanted to happen.
Sometimes in our churches we spend so much time allocating blame for decisions or actions that happened in the past, so much time arguing about whose fault it was that something went wrong ten years ago, that we forget that God has something for us to do NOW. We need the leadership of Judah and the courage of Jacob to focus on the task that God has given us – to make all people followers of Jesus.
That is the NOW task, and passing blame for the past must not be allowed to get in the way.
Prayer
Dear Lord,
Give us the wisdom to focus on the task set before us
And the faith to trust you for the outcome.
Thank you, Lord. Amen
Genesis 43 v 15-23
So the brothers took the gifts. They also took twice as much money as they had
taken the first time, and they took Benjamin. They hurried down to Egypt and
stood before Joseph.
When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the servant in charge of his
house, “Bring those men into my house. Kill an animal and prepare a meal. Those
men will eat with me today at noon.” The servant did as Joseph told him and
brought the men to Joseph’s house.
The brothers were afraid when they were brought to Joseph’s house and thought,
“We were brought here because of the money that was put in our sacks on the
first trip. He wants to attack us, make us slaves, and take our donkeys.” So
the brothers went to the servant in charge of Joseph’s house and spoke to him
at the door of the house. They said, “Master, we came here once before to buy
food. While we were going home, we stopped for the night and when we opened
our sacks each of us found all his money in his sack. We brought that money
with us to give it back to you. And we have brought more money to pay for the
food we want to buy this time. We don’t know who put that money in our sacks.”
But the servant answered, “It’s all right. Don’t be afraid. Your God, the God
of your father, must have put the money in your sacks. I got the money you paid
me for the grain last time.” Then the servant brought Simeon out to them.
Notes
The brothers returned to Egypt. They were driven by the need to feed their families
and dependents. They did not know what the outcome would be, but they went ahead
anyway, trusting in God but still fearful. And things looked OK. They were welcomed,
they were taken to the ruler’s own house, and orders were given for a party.
The brothers were suspicious. Maybe the money they had found in their bags was a trap; maybe they were going to be made slaves (these “honest men” had sold their own brother into slavery). What to do? Keep quiet and hope, or admit that they still had the money that should have paid for the last consignment of grain? “Keep your head down and hope” must have been a BIG temptation. They decided to be open.
The servant put them at their ease. “It’s all right. Don’t worry. I got paid for the grain that you had.” If the children of Israel had not mentioned the money, everything would have been fine, BUT they had not known that, and if the unkind ruler, their brother Joseph, HAD been looking for missing payments, their silence could have seemed very suspicious.
To tell or not to tell, there is no hard or fast rule. Sometimes silence prevents a great deal of pain, whilst speaking out does no good at all – something the irresponsible end of the British press refuses to accept. But this was not an issue of “kiss and tell”; it was to do with personal honesty – like money found in the street, or a shop undercharging.
Christians witness by words and deeds. The small acts of transparent honesty or dishonesty that we may perform say more about us, and reflect upon our God, than any amount of “telling” people about Jesus.
Prayer
Dear Lord,
You were tempted in the wilderness, yet you did not succumb.
Help us to live lives that shine as witnesses to you that will mark us, your
followers, as different.
Thank you, Lord. Amen
Genesis 43 v 24-28
The servant led the men into Joseph’s house and gave them water, and they washed
their feet. Then he gave their donkeys food to eat. The men prepared their gift
to give to Joseph when he arrived at noon, because they had heard they were
going to eat with him there.
When Joseph came home, the brothers gave him the gift they had brought into
the house and bowed down to the ground in front of him. Joseph asked them how
they were. He said, “How is your aged father you told me about? Is he still
alive?”
The brothers answered, “Your servant, our father, is well. He is still alive.”
And they bowed low before Joseph to show him respect.
Notes
It was party time! And like all good parties, it started with practicalities
– making sure that the guests were comfortable and not worried, water to wash
and ease tired feet and food for the donkeys. Joseph was showing great honour
to his brothers. He was a great lord, a man of power in Egypt. Joseph had the
gift of life or death; it was in his power to grant or refuse aid, to sell them
grain or send them away empty-handed.
The brothers were a bunch of wandering shepherds looking for a
favour to stay alive.
Joseph was treating them as honoured guests by eating with them and entertaining
them in his own home. And the brothers responded by presenting Joseph with gifts
from “home”, including honey, pistachio nuts and almonds - foods that, unbeknown
to them, he would have remembered from his childhood.
Memories from the past, from the time when Joseph had been his father’s favourite, from when he had had dreams, dreams that must have seemed ridiculous. Dreams that certainly caused bad feeling between Joseph and his brothers. Dreams that led Joseph to be sold into slavery.
Now those dreams were coming true, as the brothers bowed low before Joseph to show him respect.
Prayer
Dear Lord,
We cannot know the future, what you have in store for us.
Give us the faith to trust you for the future.
Thank you, Lord. Amen
Genesis 43 v 29-34
When Joseph saw his brother Benjamin, who had the same mother as he, Joseph
asked, “Is this your youngest brother you told me about?” Then he said to Benjamin,
“God be good to you, my son!” Then Joseph hurried off because he had to hold
back the tears when he saw his brother Benjamin. So Joseph went into his room
and cried there. Then he washed his face and came out. He controlled himself
and said, “Serve the meal.”
So they served Joseph at one table, his brothers at another table, and the Egyptians
who ate with him at another table. This was because Egyptians did not like Hebrews
and never ate with them. Joseph’s brothers were seated in front of him in order
of their ages, from oldest to youngest. They looked at each other because they
were so amazed. Food from Joseph’s table was taken to them, but Benjamin was
given five times more food than the others. Joseph’s brothers ate and drank
freely with him.
Notes
Joseph continued to show honour to his guests, sending food to them from his
own table. This was a normal method of showing respect, and extra respect for
an individual was indicated by sending a double portion. Benjamin was not sent
a double portion; he was sent five times more food than the others. This went
way beyond the norms of showing respect; this was honour upon honour.
Not an honour that the Egyptians present approved of. The Egyptians did not like the Hebrews, so they refused to eat with them. “Those Hebrews, can’t even feed themselves, turning up in Egypt and eating ‘our’ food, taking ‘our’ jobs, nothing but economic migrants…” Racial prejudice was alive and nasty in the state of Egypt!
It is very easy to whip up ill feeling against those who are different. Politicians do it when they want to appeal to the basest instincts in the voting population. Newspapers do it by an easy use of misinformation and derogatory labels - asylum seekers become “false asylum seekers”; all Muslims are labelled as fanatics, with the subtext that they are probably bombers. These attitudes have no place in the thinking of Christians.
We are all prejudiced to some degree or other; we pick up ideas from all over the place, usually without question or even realising what has happened. But as Christians we are not meant to leave it there - we are supposed to be open to God the Holy Spirit; to test the Spirit, including the spirit of the age (the common sense that everyone agrees with). If we find that common sense not conforming to the will of God, then the gospel requires change. We should ask God what our part is to be in bringing that change about.
Prayer
Dear Lord,
Thank you that we are all different.
Thank you that even in that difference there is always your image.
Help us to see you in the stranger; you in the other.
Help us to resist the lies that would create separation where there should be
no separation, and hatred where you demand love.
Help us to see our part in combating the evil of racism in the world.
Thank you, Lord. Amen
word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken
from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993
by Word Publishing Milton Keynes