Gen 41:53-42:28, Wait on God; do the right thing

Timeline:

1916	Birth of Joseph	Gen 30:23
1899	Selling of Joseph (17 yrs old)	Gen 37:2
1886	Joseph (30 yrs old - out of prison) -- 13 years gone	Gen 41:46
1879	Beginning of famine (37 yrs old) -- 20 years gone	Gen 41:54
1878	Brothers’ first visit to Egypt (38 yrs old)	Gen 42:1-2
1877	Brothers’ second visit to Egypt (39 yrs old)	Gen 43:1; 45:6, 11
1876	Jacob's descent to Egypt	Gen 46:6; cf. 47:9
1845	Israel is enslaved
1446	Israel leaves Egypt after 400 years of bondage	Gen 15:13,16;Acts 7:6
1395	Conquest of Canaan complete (essentially)	Acts 13:19,20

Review:


Gen 41:53-42:9 (ESV) The seven years of plenty that occurred in the land of Egypt came to an end, 54 and the seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said. There was famine in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. 55 When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, "Go to Joseph. What he says to you, do."

56 So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. 57 Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth.

42:1 When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons, "Why do you look at one another?" 2 And he said, "Behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die." 3 So ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. 4 But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might happen to him. 5 Thus the sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

6 Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground. 7 Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them. "Where do you come from?" he said. They said, "From the land of Canaan, to buy food." 8 And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. 9 And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them. And he said to them, "You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land."



• Why does Jacob not send Benjamin?
• Afraid that harm would come him
• Did he not trust the other sons?
• Was Joseph's loss affecting his other decisions?
• Appears to show favoritism
• Why does Joseph recognize his brothers but they do not recognize him?
• They were all older and so would not have changed in appearance as much as a 17 year old
• There were a lot of them (unusual)
• They thought Joseph was dead or gone
• They were dressed in their traditional clothes, Joseph was dressed as an Egyptian
• They spoke Hebrew, but Joseph spoke Egyptian
• Was this planned by Joseph, why or why not?
• The staff knew he was Hebrew (Eber)
• He kept up his Egyptian disguise without fail (he was ready)
• How would the six dreams have influenced Joseph?
• He has seen four fulfilled but two remain
• What were the two dreams again and how do we see them represented?
• The one dream had the sun and moon and stars bowing down to Joseph?
• Represents his position as authority
• The other dream had the sheaves of grain bowing down to Joseph's sheave?
• Represents his position as provider
• He never visits his family or even sends a message during the 8-9 years he is out of prison (he knew they were coming)
• BOTTOM LINE: we don't know if it was planned or not, but as we look at the totality of Joseph's action, we can determine his intent ...
• Why did Joseph play the game?
• He wanted to be reunited to his family, but wanted to know if his brothers had learned their lesson
• He wanted to know if they were they sorry or not
• APPLICATION: Joseph waited on God for his fulfillment of his plans. Our tendency is to move things along, but Joseph waited


Gen 42:10-20 (ESV) They said to him, "No, my lord, your servants have come to buy food. 11 We are all sons of one man. We are honest men. Your servants have never been spies."

12 He said to them, "No, it is the nakedness of the land that you have come to see." 13 And they said, "We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan, and behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more." 14 But Joseph said to them, "It is as I said to you. You are spies. 15 By this you shall be tested: by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here. 16 Send one of you, and let him bring your brother, while you remain confined, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you. Or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies." 17 And he put them all together in custody for three days.

18 On the third day Joseph said to them, "Do this and you will live, for I fear God: 19 if you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody, and let the rest go and carry grain for the famine of your households, 20 and bring your youngest brother to me. So your words will be verified, and you shall not die." And they did so.



• Why do the brothers respond as they do to the Joseph's charge?
• When accused of being a spy, you do not want to lie (penalty for spying is death)
• So they would not have held anything back
• Also, why would a nation send ten spies all from the same family?
• Why does Joseph make an issue of the youngest brother?
• Obviously he wants to see Benjamin, the only one not involved in the crime
• Benjamin's existence proves the veracity of the brother's statement (in terms of the plot, it would make sense)
• It puts the focus back on Rachel's children
• The reason Benjamin is so protected is because he is the only remaining son of Rachel
• The reason he is the only remaining son is because of what the brothers did
• Why put them in prison for three days?
• Scripture doesn't say, but it does give them time to think
• Some suggest that is the time (in years) that Joseph was in prison. We don't know, but I think he probably spent half or more of the 13 years in prison
• APPLICATION: ??
• I wonder if at times when we fail, God gives us another test or opportunity to do it right
• The key to passing the second test is recognizing you failed the first test
• That requires thought, prayer, and repentance


Gen 42:21-24 (ESV) Then they said to one another, "In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us." 22 And Reuben answered them, "Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood." 23 They did not know that Joseph understood them, for there was an interpreter between them. 24 Then he turned away from them and wept. And he returned to them and spoke to them. And he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes.



• What is the issue that comes to the forefront?
• Joseph.  Sin and guilt work this way.  It will never go away until it is forgiven
• Just think, for the last 20 years, every time something did not go right, they were probably saying to themselves, it is because of our brother -- how painful and how sad
• Why did Joseph turn to weep?
• He recognized that they were sorry for their sin.  It would be possible to reconcile
• His brother's sin had been eating at them for 20 years
• He loved them
• Why not imprison Reuben?  Why Simeon?
• In the capture and slavery story, it is Reuben and Judah who act to save the boys life (#1 and #4 oldest).  What do we know of Simeon and Levi (#2 and #3)?
• They were violent men (34:25 and 49:5-7)
• The final possibility is that God is working in Simeon's life and will use the year in prison to teach him a lesson
• APPLICATION: Even as Christians, we need to deal with sin and guilt.  One of the aspects of the blood of Christ is that it has the power to wash away guilt.  Guilt destroys a person very slowly.  But we can confess our sins and be released from guilt.  Sometimes God requires that we go to the person we sinned against in order to be completely free.  I can't really offer a formula for when and why that is needed, but as you pray, you will realize what you need to do


Gen 42:25-28 (NIV) 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?"



• What does the returning of the money do?
• It now makes it appear that they stole the grain
• It is a gracious act done secretly on Joseph's part, but it ups the ante
• Although, it could also make it appear that they sold Simeon to Jacob (doubt it because they got a lot of money back)
• Once again, sin and guilt cause them to do what?
• Blame God or see God in the act (which is good and bad)
• They are still blaming themselves. They don't see it as good but as a bad omen. They are haunted by their past actions and see God haunting them