August 3, 2002 Genesis 44:30-34
“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, sees that the boy isn’t there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. 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!’ “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 upon my father.”
“How in the world did you get yourself in this mess?”, the mother asked her daughter, as the little girl came sobbing out of the bathroom. Here she was, hovering over her three year old daughter, who had somehow managed to get a hairbrush thoroughly entwined in her hair in what seemed to be about a hundred knots. As she looked at the situation, the mother declared, “what a mess, how am I going to fix this?”
Have you ever wondered that about your own life? “How did I get myself into this mess?” A popular idiom for such situations is used when we say, “what a tangled web we weave!” When you walk through a cob web, you can understand the meaning of the saying. A web is sticky, made up of many strands coming from many directions and meeting at the middle. Sometimes we can weave ourselves into quite a sticky mess.
Today, as we continue our Joseph Sermon Series, we’ll see what a tangled web Joseph’s brothers had spun into, and how we often get ourselves into similar situations. Our theme for today is -
What a Tangled Web We Weave!
I. Sin gets us into it
Up to this point in the story, Joseph’s brothers had gotten themselves into quite a tangled web, hadn’t they? They thought that selling their brother into slavery would end their father’s favoritism and put an end to their jealousy and anger. But instead of simplifying their lives, their web became more entangled. Instead of dealing with their father’s favoritism, they had to deal with his sorrow and their own guilt. You might compare it to a child playing with sticky tape - the more they play with it the worse it becomes. Joseph’s brothers went from toying with sin to being firmly wrapped in it.
The brothers returned to Egypt for two main purposes - to get food for their family and release Simeon from prison. The only problem was that they needed to bring Benjamin, Jacob’s youngest and favorite son, along for the journey. Even though he was most likely in his twenties, his father had been very protective of him. Jacob thought that he had lost Joseph to wild animals on a short fifty mile journey, and so he decided to never let Benjamin out of his sight. The only way Judah was able to persuade him was the fact that they would have starved to death if they didn’t bring him. Judah gave Jacob his word that he would return Benjamin home safely - if not - he would bear the guilt for the rest of his life. So they went on their journey, hoping that nothing would go wrong.
What happened when they arrived in Egypt? Joseph actually took them into his house. They wined and dined - had a great time! They even received Simeon back along with a load of wheat. Everything went great! They probably thought to themselves, “let’s get out of here before anything goes wrong!” But then, on the way home, Joseph’s steward came riding out to meet them. He said, “how could you be so evil as to steal the very cup that Joseph uses to talk to the gods!” They said, “we did no such thing! If any of us stole it, you can put him to death and make us slaves!” So sure was their innocense. But after a close examination of their bags - the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack! . . .
Joseph’s solution was simple. “You can go home. I’ll just keep Benjamin as my slave.” It seemed like a fair and simple solution, but it wasn’t. Judah approached Joseph oh so timidly, and tried to explain the tangled web of a mess he was in. In modern day terms, Judah basically said, “my father’s life is closely bound up with Benjamin’s life, and so is mine! If he stays here, my father will die from sorrow! Benjamin’s only brother died, and he is the only son left from his mother. My father loves Benjamin very much, and this would break his heart! Besides this, I have taken on the responsibility for Benjamin, so if he doesn’t come back, then I will have to bear that guilt for the rest of my life!” What Judah was basically saying is, “this is a real tangled web we’re in here, and Benjamin is the one part of our mess that we can’t let go of! If he goes into slavery and we have to go home, it will KILL my father and ruin ALL of our lives.” It was like a big tangled web.
Like a web, sin, by it’s very nature, is sticky. It isn’t something that you can weave and be able to walk across like a spider. After Adam and Eve had sinned, God’s Word says, Adam had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. (Genesis 5) Like a bad disease, sin clung to Adam and his son and to all his descendants. The sad thing is that it is not like a web that we can simply brush away with a simple swipe of our hands. God said in Genesis 8 that it is actually so bad that every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. In other words, it is as if we are naturally born in a tangled mess of sin, like a fly to the spider, not free, but unable to escape.
Even as Christians, we have a similar struggle. Sin isn’t selective - it will cling to anyone at anytime, and it doesn’t stop clinging to us once we are Christians. Look at what the APOSTLE Paul said in Romans 7, When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? As much as Paul tried to escape from the web of sin, it seemed impossible.
What kind of webs have you spun for yourself? Is it “complicated?” Have you spun a web of anger toward your parents for not spending time with you? Have you been entwined in an ongoing argument with your spouse because you just can’t seem to let him or her get the last word? Have you been raised to be a pessimistic person and just can’t seem to let it go? Sin is like getting caught in a web. If we try to walk across it without getting caught, we often end up the victims.
The worse part is that sin never involves just one person, it always wants more. There was a recent story about a woman who was caught in a flood. Four of her friends tried to throw a line out to her and save her - but all four drowned in the process of trying to get her out. That’s how sin is - it has a draw to it - bringing more and more in. Consider these every day examples:
John came home from work and be tired and a little bit grumpy. Once again, as he pulled into the driveway, his son had left his bike in the way. Angry enough as he was, this just set him off. He got out of the car, chucked the bike out of the way, and then proceeded to go in and yell at his wife and kids. He was both rude and impatient to them. This sin then effected the whole night. The kids didn’t want to talk with him, and his wife, who was looking forward to seeing him, then became angry and wouldn’t speak to him either. The whole night was tense because of it. Here you see how one sin entangled the whole family in a night of anger and yelling.
Jared was a very attentive child in Sunday School and liked to participate. However, he also liked hanging out with his neighbor, even though this child was a smart mouth and wasn’t a Christian. He thought his neighbor’s sins wouldn’t effect him. But pretty soon, his neighbor expected Jared to join him in vandalizing some property and making fun of kids at the pool. It wasn’t so easy to be friends with this neighbor and keep his nose clean. It was more sticky than he though.
These are just two examples of how we live in a world that is full of these sticky webs. If you think Jacob’s life was bad or yours is bad, turn on Jerry Springer or Maury Povich or Cheaters, and you’ll get a taste of how unbelievably tangled people’s lives can become because of sin. The more we live among it, the easier it is to get entangled.
II. The truth gets us out of it
From the back porch of her home a lady once noticed a beautiful butterfly with its fragile legs caught in a spider’s web. It was flapping its wings wildly trying desperately to escape. Feeling sorry for the butterfly, she came closer to see if she could help free it. What she saw, though, was that the harder the butterfly tried to escape, the more it got enmeshed in the spider’s web.
All of us have found ourselves in similar situations that seem to be very sticky, with no way out. Judah and his brothers found themselves to be in one of those situations. He even said, “What can we say to my lord?” Judah replied. “What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants’ guilt. We are now my lord’s slaves—we ourselves and the one who was found to have the cup.” He really couldn’t say anything to defend himself. The only solution he could come up with would be for him and his brothers to be slaves the rest of his life. But when Joseph decided to only keep Benjamin, he had to say something to try and get out of it. So what did he do?
In today’s text, Judah made one last effort by simply explaining the truth as simply as possible. I don’t know that he expected to “get out of” the mess they were in. But he did hope at least to get Benjamin out - by explaining to Joseph just how important Benjamin’s life was to him and his father, and then providing a solution. What was it? “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 upon my father.” Judah offered himself as Benjamin’s substitute.
Even though Joseph did not accept Joseph’s offer, think about how much Judah had changed at this point! In Genesis 37, before this whole mess started, listen to who was the instigator when it came to selling Joseph - Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed. Two times he had the chance to go home and leave Benjamin as a slave. But instead of taking the opportunity , it was this same Judah - who was at one time so full of anger and jealousy - WILLING to sell his brother as a slave, who was now willing to sell HIMSELF as a slave instead of his brother. Being completely humbled, he was willing to trade his life for his brothers. That was the only way he felt he could set his brother free from the web which he had been put into.
Throughout this sermon series we’ve been talking about how Joseph did things that were SIMILAR to Christ. But here we see JUDAH - the forerunner and ancestor of Christ - do his own imitation of Christ. Like Judah, Jesus could have very easily left us to be stuck in our webs of sin - ending up in hell with Satan for eternity. It would have been neither selfish nor sinful for Jesus to do so - because we have each deserved such a sentence. But in his mercy, God did not want to see us die in slavery. His love would not permit Him to do so. So God sent Jesus, His only Son, who volunteered to be our SUBSTITUTE! Jesus said to our King, “I will take their place. I will live a life of perfection and obedience in their place. I will be punished for their sins - if you let my brothers go.” Unlike with Joseph and Judah, the King accepted Jesus’ suggestion. Jesus lived for us. He died for us. The payment was made.
Therefore, when Paul was feeling entangled by sin’s web - feeling there was no escape - he remembered there was One. Who was the answer to his dilemma? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! We were buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. The most powerful thing that has ever happened to you occurred at your baptism, when God cut the cord of Satan’s clutches from your soul, and counter claimed you as HIS child. The most powerful thing happened when the Holy Spirit broke through your sinful habits - crushed your heart with the LAW, and then freed your soul with the Gospel. As Paul said, the Gospel is the POWER of God for the salvation of those who believe.
When we see that Jesus already lived a perfect life for us, it frees us from the pressure to try and sacrifice ourselves or enslave our selves to be free from God’s wrath and get to heaven. When we realize that God already punished Jesus instead of us, it changes us. It frees us from guilt and fear. When we hear that our sinful natures have been buried, we then realize that we don’t have to do what our sinful nature used to get us to do. When we realize that the Holy Spirit lives in us, it gives us confidence that we can do as God says. We can say no to drugs. We can have Bible studies. We can listen to our parents. We can respect our teachers. We can teach our children. We have been given FREEDOM through Christ.
When the lady saw the butterfly stuck in the web, she couldn’t bear to see it struggle. As gently as possible she was able to help free it and was delighted when it was able to break free and fly away. If you came to church this morning - as a Christian who is getting tangled up in a web - flapping your wings and trying your hardest to get free from sin - it may seem like instead of being set free, you’re sinking deeper into your own web. If that is the case, then now is the time to go back to the only source of strength that frees you from sin! Go to the cross! At the foot of the cross, be like Judah, and proclaim the truth. Say to Christ, “what a tangled web I have woven for myself! I only deserve to die for what I have done. Time and again I have messed up and gotten myself into further trouble.” But then you can say to Jesus, “however, I am placing my sins on you. For you are my substitute. Take this guilt on your shoulders. Take the punishment. Set me free from my sin.” Jesus will then assure you, “I have taken your sin on Me. I have adopted you as My child at your baptism, and now I am intimately connected with you. I am your righteousness. I am your life. I give you My Spirit. I am yours, and I am taking you back to the Father, to be with Me forever.” Proclaim the truth of Christ, and the truth will set you free from the tangled web you’ve gotten yourself into. Amen.
