Genesis 43

The Second Journey to Egypt - Path of Reconciliation

Genesis 44 1-15 [Part 1 of 2]

Have you ever had a falling out with somebody? Have you ever been in a situation where you needed to be reconciled to somebody? I’ve known of some simple cases where that happened, and they were relatively easy to resolve. Those are relatively easy to resolve, but I’ve also known of some very difficult cases I know of one many years ago where there were two brothers who got along fine working in the family business until the father died and they both wanted to run the business. I’m not sure of all the details except they had a massive falling out. The alienation between them lasted for years and years and years.

I have also known the other side of that coin so to speak where people have had a conflict with each other, and they didn’t resolve it until somebody they both loved died. It was only when they appeared at the same funeral together that they finally sorted it out. Sad that it took the death of somebody in the family they both loved for them to get together. In those kinds of situations, and especially in family situations it can be very difficult to bring about a reconciliation.

So, what I’m considering today is what needs to be present for those kinds of situations to be resolved, or they asked that same question another way, what virtues should the people involved have to have in order for them to go from row to reconciliation? If you’re a fully grown adult, still breathing I suspect you have probably had one or two falling outs in your life, and you’re probably going to have some more before you die. These are the kind of things we need to know if we want to live a peaceful powerful Christian life.

In the Old Testament there was a massive falling out between 11 brothers and one brother. It is the story of Joseph that we have been studying together for the last few weeks. We arrived at Genesis chapter 44 today and we shall spend a couple of episode in this chapter looking at what we hope the beginning of a family reconciliation between brothers that has played out over 20 years.

You will remember Joseph’s 11 brothers sold him into slavery and he got hauled off down to Egypt, where he eventually landed in prison. Yet in the amazing providence of God, he ends up being the prime minister of Egypt, in charge of the administration of the entire land.

Then there was a famine in the land so these eleven brothers needed to go and find food, so they were commanded by their father to go down into Egypt to buy food Their father Jacob wasn’t initially willing to go or let all eleven of them go. Jacob would only allow ten of them to go initially, so off they went to Egypt. This is 20 years since they had sold their brother into slavery, and after an amazing set of events that we have covered in the last few chapters he’s has ended up as the Prime Minister in Egypt, when they had just assumed he was dead. They certainly didn’t expect him to be the Prime Minister or the Vice President, second in charge in the whole land. He was probably dressed in the Egyptian clothes and spoke through an interpreter and had probably changed a lot in 20 years, so they did not recognize him, but he recognized them. His motive is clearly reconciliation but there’s a lot of water that’s gone under the bridge. A lot of things have happened, yet he's most concerned about his father, is his father still living, and he has a brother. I said that Jacob allowed ten of them to go but he kept back one called Simeon and and he wanted to know about his other brother Benjamin and manipulate the situation so that he too came to Egypt.  So, he says, I tell you what, I will keep one of your brothers and you go and bring Benjamin back and then i’ll turn loose the brother. I’m going to keep Simeon, but he wanted to make sure Benjamin was OK. 

So, these ten brothers go back to the promised land and they show they father the food they been given by the Egyptians and they say to their father. Oh, by the way, we have left a brother behind.  One of us is still in Egypt and we need to go back with Benjamin. Jacob understandingly says, “you’re not going back”. He refuses to let them go. In his mind, he’s already lost now two sons, he lost Joseph, 21 years ago and now he has lost Simeon, who’s now being held by Joseph in Egypt. He’s down in Egypt and he’s thinking if you take Benjamin, I’ll lose him too. Initially they don’t go, and if that stays the case then there can be no recognition, and time passes That brings us to Genesis chapter 43. Verse, one says,

Now the famine was still severe in the land. 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.”

(Genesis 43: 1-2)

Alright, this introduces the next episode in this long story of Joseph and he potential reconciliation with the rest of his family. This next episode in the story naturally falls into three parts. In the first 15 verses of this chapter, the brothers are having a conversation with their father, then beginning in verse 16 and going through verse 25, they end up talking to the steward in Joseph’s house. Then the rest of the chapter they have a conversation with Joseph.

So, there are three different conversations recorded for us in the progression of this chapter. These conversations reveal things about these ten brothers that really are critical in showing what it takes to be really reconciled after a period of alienation. The story opens with the fact that there is a famine in the land, and it’s been going on for years. Only verse one says the famine is now severe. The Hebrew word translated severe language experts say it would be better translated as, very oppressive. They didn’t have the means to grow food anymore, perhaps they hadn’t had enough rain to produce the crops and what food they get brought back from Egypt didn’t last forever. So, they were running out of food, and this forces Jacob to face the situation. Israel then says to them to go back to Egypt and buy more food. Can you see any problem here? Remember what Joseph said. “You can’t come back unless you bring me Benjamin”., and Jacob said there’s no way Benjamin is going back. That’s the problem and the conversation recoding how they deal with this impasse is the first of three discussions recorded in this chapter.

“But Judah said to him, “The man warned us solemnly, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’ 

(Genesis 43: 3)

So, Judah steps up, he becomes the spokesman for the brothers, and he says, Father, I must remind you that the man in charge who is holding Simeon down in Egypt said, “don’t you dare come back unless you bring Benjamin with you”. We can’t possibly go back to Egypt without Benjamin.

  If you will send our brother along with us, we will go down and buy food for you. 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.’”

(Genesis 43: 4-5)

So, he’s pressing the point that they can’t go back, he’ll kill us all if we go back without Benjamin, that’s the point…. Verse 6

Israel asked, “Why did you bring this trouble on me by telling the man you had another brother?”

(Genesis 43: 6)

“Israel asked”, who’s Israel? Remember Jacob had his name changed to Israel, I am sure you remember that about 10 chapters back. I have referred to him as both Jacob and Israel ever since, but he hasn’t been called Israel in the text since chapter 37. By calling him, Israel within the family seems to indicate that by using the name God gave him that maybe he’s beginning to trust the Lord in this situation. He’s saying, look, it’s your fault because you told him you had another brother. If you hadn’t told him that, he wouldn’t have known….Verse 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’?”

(Genesis 43: 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’?” Notice it says, “They replied”, did you see that? Judah spoke in verse three and verse 4, and in verse five his father answers him in verse six and then they all chime in, in verse 7. It’s no longer just Judah speaking, it’s all the brothers, except of course, Joseph and Simeon who are down in Egypt and the brothers say, father, look, the man asked us pointedly about ourselves and our family. Saying, is your father still alive and you another brother? And we told him the truth, how could we possibly have known that he would say bring your other brother down. We didn’t volunteer the information, he pointedly asked us if we had another brother. What are we supposed to do? Lie? We simply answered his question and furthermore, we had no way of knowing that he was going to keep Simeon and to bring down Benjamin. It wasn’t our fault, the simple reality is he asked us a question, and all we did was answer it. 

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. 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. As it is, if we had not delayed, we could have gone and returned twice.”

(Genesis 43: 8-10)

Alright. Judah is going to apply the pressure and try and persuade his father, and it interesting what he says. He says, look, if we don’t go, we all may die. You will die, I die, we all will die.  Even the little ones the grandchildren are going to die if we don’t get food. Then he says, look, I’ll. I’ll guarantee this will happen, I’ll be responsible, if I don’t bring him Benjamin back, then you can hold me responsible. By your insistance that we do not take Benjamin, it’s going to be the death of all of us.

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. 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. 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.” So the men took the gifts and double the amount of silver, and Benjamin also. They hurried down to Egypt and presented themselves to Joseph.

(Genesis 43: 11-15)

Israel finally got the point, the point being, he had no choice. So, he said alright you can go, but take gifts, and the gifts are listed, and, Oh yeah, double the money. If you recall the story. We’ve already looked at. When they left Egypt that first time, Joseph had their money put back in their saddlebags and they didn’t know that until they got way away from Egypt, and they discovered that all their money had been returned to them, and now they’re terrified. They are afraid they’re going to be blamed for stealing the grain and not paying for it, so Jacob says, look, take double the money. The point being is to return the money that came back with you and have enough to pay for a second lot.

Israel has finally conceded that they should go and then he says this very thing in verse 14 when he says, “May God almighty give you mercy. So, he is leaning hard on God’s mercy. We need God’s mercy before this man that he may release your other brothers, Simeon and Benjamin, and then he says this, and it’s an interesting illustration of prayer because he is in essence pleading God’s mercy on the one hand and on the other accepting beforehand the reality of how things might turn out as he hopes. So, he said, look, I’m going to plead God’s mercy. I’m going to pray, but you know, if the Lord isn’t merciful and we don’t get Simeon and Benjamin back, and that’s the real outcome, I’ll just accept that. In fact I myself may not survive these events.

Sometimes in life I believe that you either say, Lord, I’m pleading for your mercy, but if you don’t give it to me, I’m going to praise you anyway. People are sinners and they do wicked stuff that’s the reality of the world we live in and sometimes we have got to face the reality that other people still have free will to reject God’s prompting and not follow his will. Which means sometimes when the answer to our prayers depends upon other people listening and responding to God promptings means that things don’t work out the way we would hope. That is what I think is going on here. Even Jacob has now come around by looking at reality of their situation, and he understands that if they don’t do something, the whole family is going to starve to death anyway. They’re looking at reality and furthermore, they’re accepting the responsibility. No matter what happens. Even Judah is accepting responsibility for bringing Benjamin back and Jacob is accepting responsibility by saying no matter what happens I will accept it now. Those are the characteristics that you need and the openness you need to show if there’s going to be genuine reconciliation between estranged people. There needs to be the willingness to look at reality and there needs to be some accepting responsibility. They need to look at the truth and they need to look at it square in the face and that is the first conversation recorded in this chapter after which the all head down to Egypt and present themselves to Joseph.