How To Reconcile Completely

(Genesis 44: 17-34)

[Part 2 of 2]

So, it seems the brother have finally got to where they should be in life. They have taken responsibility for their previous actions and show repentance, and they have also when tested remained loyal to each other and most importantly they have remained loyal and not abandoned their younger brother Benjamin, even when he appeared to be guilty of what he was accused of. In fact, Judah even offered to take Benjamin’s place and be taken as a slave.

17 But Joseph said, “Far be it from me to do such a thing! Only the man who was found to have the cup will become my slave. The rest of you, go back to your father in peace.”

So, this is Joseph speaking to them and them Judah replies.

18 Then Judah went up to him and said: “Pardon your servant, my lord, let me speak a word to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, though you are equal to Pharaoh himself.19 My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’  20 And we answered, ‘We have an aged father, and there is a young son born to him in his old age. His brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’

(Genesis 44: 18-20)

Remember this? On their first visit he asked them, “do you have a father, and do you have a brother? He knew the answer. And what Judith is doing now is saying remember, you asked us that question before and we told you our father was an old man and he has one younger child who was born to him in old age that child is very young and because his brother is dead and he is the only one left of that mother, and they both really loves him. Judah is reminding him of their previous conversation. Remember, he says, Joseph and Benjamin have the same mother and that's a real critical part of this story. Judah is explaining remember how we told you that we had a brother who was dead [because they thought Joseph was dead] and our father in his old age had another child and that child is Benjamin…. Verse 21.

21 “Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so I can see him for myself.’ 22 And we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father; if he leaves him, his father will die.’ 23 But you told your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’ 

(Genesis 44: 21-23)

By the way, notice he now also referring to their father as Joseph’s servant. Wasn’t that the original dream he had that they would all bow down to him? At any rate, verse 24 says.

24 When we went back to your servant my father, we told him what my lord had said.25 “Then our father said, ‘Go back and buy a little more food.’ 26 But we said, ‘We cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother is with us will we go. We cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’7 “Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28 One of them went away from me, and I said, “He has surely been torn to pieces.” And I have not seen him since. 29 If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my grey head down to the grave in misery.’

(Genesis 44: 24-29)

Judah is now just reporting everything that was said when the family discussed the situation back in Canaan…. Verse 30.

30 “So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father, and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy’s life, 31 sees that the boy isn’t there, he will die. Your servants will bring the grey head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. 32 Your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father. I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!’

(Genesis 44: 30-32)

By the way, this is the longest speech in the Book of Genesis and what this speech is simply doing is reviewing everything that happened in the narrative so far, most of which Joseph already knew. But what is really doing is demonstrating Judah’s loyalty to his brother Benjamin, and that is what Joseph needed to see. He wanted to see these brothers would have learned to stick together and particularly show loyalty to their youngest brother Benjamin. 

Now, let’s go back to the beginning of the story. They were jealous of Joseph when they were younger, they were envious, they were angry, and Joseph can see that they have dealt with all those issues, and they have now demonstrated their trustworthiness and loyalty to each other as a family. But there’s something else Joseph needed to see them do to see that they dealt with the real problem. You see they might have been willing to bring him back just because they were starving, and they wanted the food. Remember that this whole thing is about food and famine. So, what they need to do is demonstrate that they had dealt with the root problem, which is their jealousy and envy of their brother, and so he’s using Benjamin as the test case Joseph could see they had demonstrated their loyalty to their brother Benjamin and the chapter closes out by Judah saying.

 “Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come on my father.”

(Genesis 44: 33-34)

This is incredible. Judah is saying, I’ll make a deal with you and the deal is simply this, I’ll stay and be a slave. I’ll pay for his crime; I’ll be his substitute. Only. Please, I beg you, let Benjamin go back, because if you don’t, it will kill my father. So, this thoroughly demonstrates that Judah was a transformed man. One author has said the supreme proof of Judas repentance and the moral high point of his career was his willingness to trade places with Benjamin and remain in Egypt as a slave.

This is the first instance of human substitution in the scripture Jesus Christ which is of course Judas’ descendant demonstrated the same attitude. He has now not only has now demonstrated his trustworthiness, he’s demonstrated his loyalty to the point that he would take Benjamin Place and take the punishment for the crime that supposedly Benjamin committed [but didn’t] just so he could send Benjamin back to his father. By the way, I can’t read this without thinking about the fact that Jesus Christ died in our place and became our substitute for us, in fact the N T tells us that he died for our sins.  That means he was our substitute instead of us dying, he died instead of us. That’s the kind of thing that is prefigured here for the first time in the Bible. 

So, a real spiritual metamorphosis for the better, has certainly taken place in Judah heart. Someone who originally callously engineered the selling of Joseph to strangers out of envy and anger and he is now willing to become. Joseph, slave so that the rest of his brothers, and especially Benjamin may be freed and allowed to return to Canaan, to rejoin their father. Alright, that’s the end of the episode narrated in this chapter. There is more to come in the overall story but just this episode teaches us a very critical point in the subject of reconciliation. I don’t know of another passage of scripture that gives us much detail about the reconciliation of two alienated parties as this one does. The whole story won’t be concluded till the next chapter. But what’s the point of this chapter?

I would sum it up by saying in order to be completely reconciled, they all offenders needs to demonstrate not only trustworthiness, which was done in the previous chapter, but also that they have dealt with the issue that caused the alienation to begin with in the first place. The spiritual cause, which in this case was the jealousy and the envy and the disloyalty to a brother. What this chapter tells us is that these men led by Judah has I’ve been completely transformed and changed. These men who were not loyal have become loyal. They’ve dealt with their own sin at the deepest level, and that I say is really the issue in a complete reconciliation, not that you just tip your hat and say you’re forgiven. But even beyond that, you need to demonstrate that you’ve really dealt with the cause of the problems beginning with, which was not being loyal, but one of your Blood Brothers. 

This story teaches that to have complete reconciliation, the root cause of the alienation must always be resolved. Joseph tested his brother’s loyalty to Benjamin by framing Benjamin and charging him with stealing Joseph. God was punishing them for the treatment of Joseph many years earlier, Judas plea for Benjamin voiced the genuineness of the brother’s loyalty to Benjamin. It contrasts with the former disloyalty to Joseph. The brothers thus demonstrated that they had changed, that they were repentant over the sin against their brother. There was now concern for the father and self-sacrificing love or the half-brother, mainly Benjamin. 

Someone has pointed out if believers have been envious and hateful of others in the past then sometimes God might have to put them through stressful situations to make them realize how much they must do for their fellow brothers to prevent great evil in the family of God. 

To be completely reconciled, you going to have to deal with the root problem and the root problem in this case was disloyalty versus loyalty and that they did not willing to take Benjamin Place. As we’ve gone through Genesis, I have repeatedly said things like this. Judah is going to be a ruler in the future, meaning of course, that a descendant of Judah is begun going to become the king. Now you need to put what happens in this chapter with what’s going to be said in Chapter 49. That God is choosing people, so who does he choose?  He chooses people like Judah when author explains it like this, Jacob will crown Judah with kingship, later in chapter 49, verse 10, because he demonstrates that he has become fit to rule according to God’s ideal of kingship. In that the king serves the people and wise all that significant because according to the New Testament, the words coming back, he’s going to set up a Kingdom and he’s going to choose among believers those who are going to rule and reign with him, right. Alright, so who will he choose? 

There are a number of things in the New Testament that we are going to discuss that hopefully later in our journey through the whole Bible but in the meantime, there’s something useful illustrated here. The king is not the dictator, the one who serves the most is the one who will end up ruling and reigning. That’s the truth of the New Testament his passage illustrates, and that's what is important for us to learn. We are told Jesus did not come to be the one served, but to be a servant. When you serve like he served you rain like he reigns after we are called co heirs, co rulers with him in the Kingdom. If you serve the Lord and learn to be like him in serving others. You will reign with him, and that's what the story illustrates in this chapter. 

Judah is a servant now but in Chapter 49 he becomes a ruler. That’s what the story is about, Judah got transformed, and it is that transformation that qualified him for leadership later on. Judah is transformed from one who sells his brother as a slave to one who is willing to become a slave for his brother. What a story. What a transformation.

Being transformed from one who sells the brother into slavery, to one who is willing to become a slave for his brother. That’s what God wants us all to be, and that’s what God will reward with kingship when he comes back. I hope we can be truly thankful for this truth tucked away within this much ignored story in the Old Testament but may the spirit of God impress upon us that we’re to be servants here to serve you, and by serving others so that one day we can enjoy rulership in your administration.