We’ve called Joseph’s life a roller-coaster… … where his dips included two years of languishing in prison and eleven years of slavery. And we meet him in today’s story, he’s been promoted over the world empire, Egypt, and second only to Pharaoh inside the world’s most important nation of the time. Twenty long years of slavery, prison, interpreting dreams, and a vast, widespread famine have transpired, since Joseph last saw his family. Now in today’s story – his brothers appear before him unannounced and from out of nowhere. And the irony is rich in today’s story where the story is set early Genesis 42:
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 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.” 10 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.”
among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. (Genesis 42:1-11)
Quick Summary
Jacob, Joseph’s father, initiates two trips in order to secure food, the nine brothers encounter Joseph, the brother they despised so long ago. Joseph accuses the ten brothers of spying, though it is simply a ruse. Joseph places them in jail for three nights before allowing eight of the boys to go home while Simeon, the second oldest, is bound in front of them. The only way Joseph will allow Simeon to go free is for the brothers to return with the younger brother, Benjamin. Once back in Egypt, the boys tell their father, Jacob, how Simeon was made to stay. But, Jacob refuses to send his new favorite son, Benjamin, saying, “If harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.” (Genesis 42:38b)
A long time passes before the severity of the famine causes the father, Jacob, to send the brothers back for more food. But, Jacob stubbornly refuses to send his new favorite son, Benjamin, into harm’s way. So, Judah (and this is a big turning point in the story as we’ll see in the moments to come) steps forward and personally guarantees Benjamin’s safety. Arriving back in Egypt a second time, the brothers are invited to join the still-unrecognized Joseph for a lavish banquet. They even see their brother Simeon released for the meal. All is good and everyone is full until they head off to Egypt again, when Joseph pulls the trigger on his second ploy. He planted a valuable, personal silver cup in Benjamin’s bag (and remember he’s now the new favorite son), Joseph sends his men off to catch the “thieves” in the act. Caught and dragged back before Joseph in fear of their very lives… …the brothers break down as they imagine the heart-rending sadness of their father’s grief if Benjamin doesn’t fails to back. Place a bookmark there as we’ll return in a few minutes.
Unrecognized
It’s important for you to note that no one recognizes Joseph. The ten brothers assume Joseph is dead or tolling away in slavery somewhere. A lot of time has past and people change and the man in front of them is in his 30s where Joseph was a teenager when he enslaved. And Joseph looks like an Egyptian now - His hair has changed and his clothes have changed. Plus, people around Joseph are calling him by his Egyptian name given to him by Pharaoh. Throughout day’s story, the family of Jacob, including the eleven brothers, simply refer to the unrecognized Joseph as “the man.” But Joseph immediately recognizes the brothers. And no sooner are they in before him than Joseph counts the brothers: “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.”
Now, remember there are twelve boys by four wives: “But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might happen to him.” (Genesis 42:4) It was Joseph’s mother, Rachel, that he really loved. And Rachel gave birth to only two boys – Joseph and Benjamin. Joseph was his Jacob’s favorite because Joseph’s mother was Jacob’s favorite. No wonder Joseph wants to know where Benjamin is. Joseph has good reason to fear that Benjamin is has been killed by the very hands that betrayed him.
The Tables Reversed
Last week, we witnessed Joseph get tested but today we see the table’s reversed and it’s the brothers who are tested. Joseph designs a series of tests to see if his brothers have changed. Now, Joseph is simply emulating God at this point. For God Himself tested Joseph and He tests His people: On Scripture: “For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.” (Psalm 66:10) So Joseph turns back the wheel of time to the original crime against Joseph himself. Joseph reproduces the circumstances where the ten brothers would be faced with the very crime that had done 20 years ago. Only now, Benjamin, the youngest of the twelve, and Simeon, the second oldest of the twelve, takes turns serving in Joseph’s place. Joseph brilliantly orchestrates a reversal of the heinous crime that was perpetuated on him on his brothers
1. A Concealed Guidance
Again, Joseph turns back the wheel of time to the original crime against Joseph himself. All along we have witnessed God moving Joseph into just the right place at just the right time. Only now, we’ll see Joseph as God’s agent, moving his brother into just the right place.
1.1 Déjà Vu All Over Again
Now, the story has so many tie-ins to the first part of the story (Genesis 37) that in some ways you’re handicapped if you haven’t seen the “prequel.” Throughout our story, we are reminded of the quote attributed to Yogi Berra, “It’s like Déjà Vu All over again.” Even Joseph recognizes the return to his earlier days when the brothers bow down to him, and he instantly remembers the dreams of his youth. And while the brothers make two trips to Egypt to find food, the first trip recalls an earlier scene where they return home minus one brother – Joseph back then and Simeon right now. And along the way, they’ll unwittingly report on Joseph back to their father as they did when the sold him into slavery. And for the second time, they’ll return back home with unexplained money. This entire story revolves around a theological axis, very much like the earth spinning on its axis. Joseph is being carried along as an agent of Divine destiny.
Adam Smith is considered the father of economics. It was Adam Smith’s theory that an “invisible hand” moved the world. And of course, the “invisible hand” that Adam Smith wrote about was none other than God Himself.
1.2 God’s Visibility in Genesis
In the first part of the book of Genesis, God is very visible and very audible. In the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob we see God constantly breaking in. God makes numerous appearances and there are miracles, visions, and voices. Yet, when you arrive at the last part of Genesis - when you get into the life of Joseph – all that is gone. There are no miracles, no visions, and no voices. But even while God is silent, He isn’t absent.
While providence isn’t a word you’ll find in Scripture, it’s an important biblical truth you need to understand. In the 1600s, a group of Baptists that would later influence the Puritans who forged out nation wrote this about providence: “GOD who, in infinite power and wisdom, has created all things, upholds, directs, controls and governs them, both animate and inanimate, great and small, by a providence supremely wise and holy, and in accordance with His infallible foreknowledge and the free and immutable decisions of His will.” God guides and controls everything in the universe according to His pleasure. He guides both living and non-living things according to His plan – even the seeming random things.
“The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.” (Proverbs 21:1)
‘The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)
“The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.” (Proverbs 16:33)
Our earlier Baptists and Puritan forefathers understood biblical teaching and adjusted their loves by it (as you’ll see in your sermon notes in the worship guide). When God seems the most hidden, often that’s when He’s working the most for us.
The Adjustment Bureau
The Adjustment Bureau is described as a romantic science fiction thriller featuring movie star Matt Damon. Damon plays a charismatic politician running for the United States Senate. On the campaign trail, he mistakenly falls in love with a free-spirited ballet dancer. I say “mistakenly” because she wasn’t a part of “the plan.” Damon’s life is interrupted as he arrives to work one day only to see his boss “frozen” – like a DVR is capable of freezing a TV image. Damon is unnerved as the boss sits motionless behind a large table where strange men wearing suits examine him. The men wearing suits remind you of FBI-types. Damon’s character runs from these men but later they catch up with him. The men wearing suits tell Damon they have a plan for his life as he’ll eventually be President of the United States, a plan strategically devised by someone they call “The Chairmen.” But their plan does not include falling in love with the ballet dancer. Throughout the movie, they chase him wherever he goes. They are determined to guide his life according to “The Chairman’s” plan. Damon is equally determined to follow his passion for the young girl and eventually gives up an opportunity to be the President for her. At certain points along the path of the movie, Damon’s character strays from “The Chairman’s” script. As “FBI-types” work to separate the two, Damon searches for years to find her again. When he goes off-script, the movie shows “The Chairman’s” men often referring to this evolving map. They are quickly improvising to “Plan B.” Unlike the movie, God guides all of life with no fallback to a “Plan B.”
Now, Joseph seeks to emulate God by testing his brothers: “By this you shall be tested: by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here. 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.” (Genesis 42:15-16)
Only Joseph changes his mind: “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.” (Genesis 42:18-20)
I point out to you Joseph’s change to remind us all that God’s mind never changes. God’s doesn’t waste any movements and He doesn’t change His mind. Providence. It’s not fate and it isn’t luck. Bible-believing Christians remove such words from their vocabulary.
1. A Concealed Guidance
2. Joseph’s Strategy
Watch Joseph’s strategy here. Joseph is alternating the sun and the frost in order to break the brothers open to God. When things get really hot and then really cold, really cold then really hot, it breaks things. It breaks the ground. The ground cracks. Stones can crack. This is exactly what happened to Joseph.
Do you remember his roller-coast of a life? He was up. He was down. He’s sold into slavery. Now he’s on the top. He was down in the prison. Now he’s on the top. Joseph does the very same thing to his brothers. Do you see what he’s doing? Truth and love. Frost and sun. Convicting them and humbling them and graciously encouraging them. Back and forth. This incredible mixture of truth and love is what he’s doing. He is just not doing justice because let me tell you what justice would be. What would justice be for the brothers since they places Joseph into slavery and prison for years? Slavery and prison for years. In other words, if Joseph was really paying them back, he would have just put them into prison for years. So on the one hand, he has forgiven them, but on the other hand, he hasn’t just forgiven them. If Joseph had only wanted justice, he would have said right away, right off the top, “It’s me, Joseph!” first time they met. “In the slammer!” On the other hand, if he was only giving them forgiveness, if he was only giving them pardon, he would have immediately said, “It’s me, Joseph, and I’ve forgiven you, so let bygones be bygones,” but think about it. If he had said, “It’s me, Joseph! In the slammer,” and given them only justice, would that have ever changed them? On the other hand, if he had immediately said, “It’s me, Joseph. I forgive you. Everything is fine,” would that have changed them? By alternating sun and frost, love and then truth, convicting them of their sin, giving them a taste of retribution, but at the same time not going all the way, he finally brought them into this amazing spot.
3. The Truth Gnaws at Us
There’s an elephant in the room is unusual expression that simply means there’s a serious problem that everyone is aware or but they choose to ignore. They don’t dare speak out loud of what they did to Joseph. Yet, it’s there like when talking to man with a bad toupee – everyone in the family talks about it but no one dares mention it. Joseph’s brothers were a terrible lot. Reuben, the oldest, was guilty of incest. Simeon and Levi, wiped out an entire town of both guilty and innocent alike. Theirs was a bloodthirsty act of retribution in ill-fated attempt to defend the honor of their sister. No one wants to mention their culpability in Joseph’s demise but it bubbles up everywhere throughout the narrative. And the truth is always there, just bubbling beneath the service.
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.” 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.” (Genesis 42:21-22)
And Judah said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; behold, we are my lord's servants, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found.” (Genesis 44:16)
“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7)
You cannot run from the truth. The hand of God is tightening around you. You sit in jail for three days and the ice of your rebellion is melting.
4. Judah’s Transformation
Judah has slowly evolves into the leader of the brothers. Remember, he’s the one who slept with a prostitute who turned out to be his daughter-in-law. Then Judah identified them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not know her again. (Genesis 38:26). And of course, Judah led the nine brothers of them to see their brother, Joseph, into slavery, and lied to their father. The silver cup in Benjamin’s bag has gripped everyone’s hearts in great fear – all 11 brothers fall before him. The brothers say, “We are your slaves,” and Joseph says, “Oh. Really? No. I only want one of you. Just Benjamin. The rest of you can go free.”Do you know what Joseph has done? He has set up the exact same situation that happened years before. He wants to see if they will betray their brother again and they save their skin. All the brothers have to do is abandon first Simeon and then Benjamin, and they can go free. And Judah says, “Take my life for Benjamin’s.”
