No Ordinary Joe: Feast Or Famine? Series

No Ordinary Joe

Genesis 43

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

01-16-2022

A Family in Shambles

In 2015, our family was in shambles. We had moved back from Florida and that spring Mother’s Day and Father’s Day went by without either of the boys calling us. We didn’t even know where Austin was and Joshua had no interest in speaking to us. Satan had conspired to tear my family apart and Maxine and I were grieved by the state of our little clan.

Maybe you understand this situation. Maybe your family is in shambles as well. You have grown children that don’t talk to each other or you. You have children that have gone off the deep end into sin and feel like you are judging them for their life choices. Christmas time was spent alone with your thoughts and your regrets.

Can I give you some encouragement today? I’ve been there but I’ve seen God do miracles to bring my family back together again.

Remember, “God is always doing 10,000 things and, at any given time, we may be aware of three of them.” - John Piper

This morning, we are going to see God doing the work of restoration and reconciliation in Joseph’s family. And He will do it in a way that none of them could have ever seen coming.

Turn with me to Genesis 43.

Prayer.

Jacob’s Request

“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.”

Famine is terrible. The lack of enough food is something that most of us have never truly experienced.

Famine hit Rome in 436 B.C. It got so bad, that people were throwing themselves into the Tiber River.

Famine ravaged England in 1005, and Europe in 879, 1066, and 1162, causing millions to starve to death.

Northeast Africa is notorious for famine. There are some parts of that region that haven’t had any appreciable rainfall in years.

In our text today, the famine is getting worse. I’m sure that Jacob and his sons prayed for the famine to be over. They have no idea that they are in store for six more years to try to survive.

They probably had been rationing food as much as they could and it became apparent that the food would soon run out.

Sometimes necessity drives us to do what we should do in the first place.

Jacob tells the brothers to go back and buy a little more food from Egypt. But he knows that can’t happen.

Judah’s Reminder

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

Notice that Judah doesn’t even mention Ben’s name.

The man in Egypt meant business and there would be no more grain until they returned with their little brother.

Jacob’s Rant

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

Jacob is still playing the “poor me” card.

He actually asked why the told the truth. Why didn’t they just lie? Remember what Jacob’s name means? “Deceiver.” This is something that Jacob was good at.

The brothers were flabbergasted. How in the world could we have known that he would ask us about having another brother?

Dad, it’s almost as if he somehow knew us!

Judah’s Guarantee

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.”

Rueben had disqualified himself to lead by sleeping with one of his father’s concubines. (See Genesis 35:22)

Rueben did try to step up and told his dad that if he didn’t bring Benjamin back safe that he could kill his two sons. What?! (See Genesis 42:37)

Simeon and Levi disqualified themselves to lead by committing mass murder over the rape of their sister. (See Genesis 34)