INTRO: Last week, we saw that God was using the worldwide famine to awaken the seared consciences of the sons of Jacob. They expressed a certain amount of remorse at what they had done to Joseph 20 years earlier, and started to wonder if God was punishing them for the dirty deed done so long ago. But make no mistake about it, there is still much to be accomplished in their hearts to prepare them spiritually to be the founding fathers of the 12 tribes of Israel.
The story ended last time just as the 10 sons get back from Egypt with food. They rehearsed to Jacob all their experiences in Egypt and their meeting with the prime minister. By this time, they have discovered that all the money they took to buy food had been returned to all of them – an act of grace done by Joseph himself. And of course, they had to tell dad that Simeon was being kept in Egypt as a hostage until they could return there with their youngest brother Benjamin.
How will everyone respond to this situation. We will see the varied reactions to famine time, both wrong and right. And in this we’ll also see their wrong and right reactions to the sin in their lives.
I. Wrong Reactions
A. Getting irrational (37)
– Jacob is obviously upset that this whole ordeal is going to involve Benjamin. So Reuben comes up with a plan, and for some reason he actually thinks it’s a good plan.
– Just to be clear, Reuben suggests that he will be responsible to bring Simeon back and to protect Benjamin. If anything happened to them, Jacob could slay Reuben’s sons in punishment. “Dad, I know you have lost Joseph, and now Simeon, and you fear to lose Benjamin – tell you what, if I don’t get them all back, you can kill my two sons.” What? Exactly what kind of satisfaction he thought it would give Jacob to kill his own grandsons is beyond me.
– What is going on here? Reuben is simply speaking without thinking. It illustrates that sin makes us do and say irrational things.
– Illus: Have you ever asked your kids when they got in trouble “What were you thinking?” Have they ever had a good answer? It’s usually something like, “I just wasn’t thinking, I guess.” Exactly. Sin turns your discernment to jello.
– He is willing to have his sons killed as opposed to the much simpler option of telling his dad the truth.
B. Self-pity (36, 6a)
– Not only getting irrational, but self-pity is another wrong reaction to sin. Look again at Jacob’s “feel sorry for himself” moment in verse 36. He says, “all these things are against me.” And again in verse 6, “Why are you all treating me like this?”
– Jacob misses the boat, man. Remember, this is the patriarch of Israel. And this is his opportunity to turn his family back to Jehovah. But he blows it. He can only think of how this whole situation is making him look bad. Jacob has known God now for more than 100 years, but he still wrestles with negativity and only seeing things from a horizontal viewpoint.
– Forgive me, but to put it bluntly, Jacob is whining. But he illustrates how we behave many times when trials come – We engage in complaints and whining. “Why me?” “Everyone is against me!” It’s hard to feel sorry for him. He isn’t feeling sorry for Benjamin or Simeon, he is wrapped up in his own self-pity.
– When famine comes, self-pity gets you nowhere. When it comes to sin, self-pity is a wrong reaction.
C. The blame game (6b)
– As we get in chapter 43, here’s what is going on now: The famine is getting worse. The food supplies they got from Egypt are almost depleted. Judah is now the official spokesman for the brothers. Simeon is in jail, Reuben is out of his mind crazy, so Judah has got to hold things together.
– Jacob says to the boys, “Go back to Egypt and get us some more food.” Judah speaks up and says that they can’t go back there without Benjamin. The prime minister was clear that if our brother doesn’t come back, he will take us for spies and throw us in jail or hang us. “Dad, we’ve got to take Benjamin.”
– Look at verse 6. Jacob says, “Why did you guys even tell him you had a brother?” Ah, Jacob the Deceiver strikes again. “Why didn’t you guys just withhold that piece of information from the prime minister?”
– What’s he doing? He is playing the blame game. Instead of getting busy and dealing with the issues, he’d rather sit around and point fingers and try to find out who is responsible for this so we can blame them. It’s a childish reaction to sin.
– Illus: Kids do wrong, ask them what happened. They usually point to someone else that started it. You see, it’s immature. Mature Christians take responsibility.
– We tend to think that all the problems in our marriage are the fault of our spouse. It’s easier to play the blame game than deal with ourselves.
– When you blame others, it only serves to make you look more guilty. I know of a pastor who has lately been defending himself all over social media for losing his church. He even names other pastors and deacons in his defense. It’s only making him look more like the guilty one.
– Quit thinking that you are the victim, and you are as pure as the wind-driven snow, and quit blaming others.
– When you blame others, it also postpones anything productive happening.
D. Procrastination (10)
– Look at verse 10. I am starting to like the way Judah is thinking and talking. I love the exchange in verses 6 and 7. We had no way of knowing that he’d ask for Benjamin to come down to Egypt! He is very respectful and ultimately convinces Jacob that if he doesn’t let Benjamin go, they’re all going to die. Starvation had a way of getting through to Jacob!
– The clincher is that he tells his dad that if they just would have acted and not procrastinated so much, they could have made the trip to Egypt and back two times by now! We can sit around and argue who is responsible till the cows come home, but we are going to starve to death unless we get back down there!
– When a physician prescribes an unpleasant cure, the patient may be tempted to put off taking it. But that only prolongs the pain. Perhaps you have longed for relief from sin and for blessing, but you have refused the prescription. My friend, you could already be where you wanted to be if you had the guts to take the prescription. You can’t procrastinate any longer.
– Get a plan of attack. Quit saying, you’ll get around to it.
E. Over-compensating (11)
– Jacob agrees to let them all go, but has what he thinks is a brilliant idea. He tells them to carry with them a present for the man. Balm, honey, spices, myrrh, nuts, and almonds. These were very precious commodities, ones that Egyptians would consider valuable. Oh, Jacob, you’re a schemer, aren’t you? See him trying to appease the prime minister of Egypt? Jacob tried the same tactic with Esau in trying to appease him with sheep and camels.
– Here’s a good one. Here’s one we do all the time when there is sin in our life. Instead of dealing with the sin, we over-compensate in some other area of our life and hope that God will understand. Rather than confess my sin and pride, I’ll just pour on the good works in another pocket of my life and hope that God overlooks my sin.
– Any system of religion that adds works to grace is the same old fruits-and-nuts device of Jacob.
– When famine comes, follow God’s plan, rather than trusting in your good works and human ingenuity.
F. Fear (35, 18)
– The brothers were afraid in verse 35. They all found money in their sacks and it made them fearful.
– They show up back in Egypt and Joseph invites them to lunch. Look at their response in verse 18. They thought, I mean they just knew that he was planning all this so he could kill them. Hey, if you’re conniver, you tend to think that everyone else is conniving against you.
– When you are living in sin, you are living in fear. Have you ever been speeding and then you saw a police car? All of the sudden you are living in fear. Your heart starts pounding, you nervously look in the rear-view mirror.
– That’s the fear that accompanies doing wrong.
– Now get this. All of these wrong reactions to sin have been around since the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve did every one of these. They sinned, and then heard the voice of God in the garden. What did they do? They hid themselves from God. How irrational, how fearful. Adam said it was the fault of the woman you gave me God – there’s the blame game. Eve said the serpent deceived her and she ate – more blaming and self-pity. They made themselves clothes of fig leaves instead of facing their sin – procrastination and over-compensation.
– These wrong responses to sin are as old as the beginning of time.
II. Right Reactions
A. Integrity (7,12)
– Praise God, someone is starting to make sense. As I mentioned before, Judah has his head screwed on straight. He assesses the situation honestly and with integrity.
– This causes even Jacob to care about integrity for a change. Notice in verse 12, he instructs the men to take double money on this trip. Payback money from the last time, and money for more grain. (Neat that now they have 20 bags of money to give to Joseph, when they sold him 20 years ago for 20 pieces of silver)
– Jacob didn't have to put double the silver back into those sacks. It is probably certain that he could have ill-afforded to do so personally as years of drought must certainly have drained his resources. Nonetheless, even though no one expected him to do so, he was compelled to not only do the honest thing and return the silver, he was also compelled to double it because his name, the most valuable thing he possessed, was even more compelling. Perhaps the temptation was there to try to "get away with something." Jacob was as human and subject to sin as you and I. Yet, he did not yield to this. Rather, he was not willing to accept something for which he had not dutifully paid. It really didn't matter whether he had to or not. His reputation was on the line and he would spare no cost to make sure that his good name would remain so. Jacob guarded his integrity. He put his good name above false gain.
– How often you and I want relief from sin, but we are not willing to pay the price for it. It might cost you your good name for awhile, but integrity always pays off.
B. Initiative (13)
– The words we wanted to hear long ago. Jacob tells his sons, all of them, to arise and go.
– How do you deal with sin? Immediately if not sooner! Go quickly. I think of the Prodigal son in Luke 15. Wasting his substance on riotous living. He could stay in the hog trough, acting irrationally, feeling sorry for himself, blaming his dad, putting repentance off for another day out of fear – but what did he say: “I will rise up and go unto my Father.”
– You and I must say the same thing when trapped in sin or a famine of our own making.
C. Intercession (14)
– We are continuing to see God melt the hearts of these hard men. Judah wants to tell the truth, and Jacob finally consents to let them ago.
– And then, all of the sudden, God is back on Jacob’s lips. “May God almighty show you mercy, and go before you.”
– Jacob finally has the right response to sin – crying out in God’s name for help. He realized that what they needed more than anything was Jehovah, El Shaddai’s power and protection on them.
– Whatever you are going through, don’t magnify the mistake by handling it in the wrong way.
– Seek integrity, show initiative, and call out to God for help.
