Genesis 44-45

Genesis 44-45

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Joseph’s Cup

44 And he commanded the steward of his house, saying, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack. 2 Also put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, and his grain money.” So he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken. 3 As soon as the morning dawned, the men were sent away, they and their donkeys. 4 When they had gone out of the city, and were not yet far off, Joseph said to his steward, “Get up, follow the men; and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good? 5 Is not this the one from which my lord drinks, and with which he indeed practices divination? You have done evil in so doing.’ ”

6 So he overtook them, and he spoke to them these same words. 7 And they said to him, “Why does my lord say these words? Far be it from us that your servants should do such a thing. 8 Look, we brought back to you from the land of Canaan the money which we found in the mouth of our sacks. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house? 9 With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s slaves.”

10 And he said, “Now also let it be according to your words; he with whom it is found shall be my slave, and you shall be blameless.” 11 Then each man speedily let down his sack to the ground, and each opened his sack. 12 So he searched. He began with the oldest and left off with the youngest; and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 13 Then they tore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey and returned to the city.

14 So Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, and he was still there; and they fell before him on the ground. 15 And Joseph said to them, “What deed is this you have done? Did you not know that such a man as I can certainly practice divination?”

16 Then Judah said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how shall we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants; here we are, my lord’s slaves, both we and he also with whom the cup was found.”

17 But he said, “Far be it from me that I should do so; the man in whose hand the cup was found, he shall be my slave. And as for you, go up in peace to your father.”

Judah Intercedes for Benjamin

18 Then Judah came near to him and said: “O my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s hearing, and do not let your anger burn against your servant; for you are even like Pharaoh. 19 My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father or a brother?’ 20 And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, who is young; his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him.’ 21 Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’ 22 And we said to my lord, ‘The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’ 23 But you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall see my face no more.’

24 “So it was, when we went up to your servant my father, that we told him the words of my lord. 25 And our father said, ‘Go back and buy us a little food.’ 26 But we said, ‘We cannot go down; if our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down; for we may not see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ 27 Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons; 28 and the one went out from me, and I said, “Surely he is torn to pieces”; and I have not seen him since. 29 But if you take this one also from me, and calamity befalls him, you shall bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave.’

30 “Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us, since his life is bound up in the lad’s life, 31 it will happen, when he sees that the lad is not with us, that he will die. So your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant our father with sorrow to the grave. 32 For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father forever.’ 33 Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad as a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers. 34 For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me, lest perhaps I see the evil that would come upon my father?”

Joseph Revealed to His Brothers

45 Then Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, “Make everyone go out from me!” So no one stood with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard it.

3 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph; does my father still live?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed in his presence. 4 And Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near to me.” So they came near. Then he said: “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 7 And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

9 “Hurry and go up to my father, and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph: “God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not tarry. 10 You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near to me, you and your children, your children’s children, your flocks and your herds, and all that you have. 11 There I will provide for you, lest you and your household, and all that you have, come to poverty; for there are still five years of famine.” ’

12 “And behold, your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my mouth that speaks to you. 13 So you shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that you have seen; and you shall hurry and bring my father down here.”

14 Then he fell on his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. 15 Moreover he kissed all his brothers and wept over them, and after that his brothers talked with him.

16 Now the report of it was heard in Pharaoh’s house, saying, “Joseph’s brothers have come.” So it pleased Pharaoh and his servants well. 17 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: Load your animals and depart; go to the land of Canaan. 18 Bring your father and your households and come to me; I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the fat of the land. 19 Now you are commanded—do this: Take carts out of the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives; bring your father and come. 20 Also do not be concerned about your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’ ”

21 Then the sons of Israel did so; and Joseph gave them carts, according to the command of Pharaoh, and he gave them provisions for the journey. 22 He gave to all of them, to each man, changes of garments; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of garments. 23 And he sent to his father these things: ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and food for his father for the journey. 24 So he sent his brothers away, and they departed; and he said to them, “See that you do not become troubled along the way.”

25 Then they went up out of Egypt, and came to the land of Canaan to Jacob their father. 26 And they told him, saying, “Joseph is still alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt.” And Jacob’s heart stood still, because he did not believe them. 27 But when they told him all the words which Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived. 28 Then Israel said, “It is enough. Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Ge 44:1–45:28.

• Transcript

  Just about they're perfect. Well, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions. This is where every weekday morning you and I we get together we have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And I'm still embarrassed so even though I'm a grown man, there's stuff. Live, you're like a 16 year old. Why don't we go ahead, have some coffee. We'll break and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank You for Your Word. God, we pray now that as we read your word that you would please care for us. Lord, we pray that You would help us to understand your word, and that you would encourage us and our walk before you in Jesus name, Amen. All right. So we are at Genesis, Genesis chapter 44. And we're going to go through 45 So we have a lot to cover today. So you're gonna want to buckle up and get ready. So we're going to do a little bit differently. We're we are going to do the ABC but we're going to kind of do it as we go. So here we go. And he commanded the steward of his house, this is Joseph, and he said, fill the man sack the men sack with food as such as they can carry and put each man's money in the mouth of his sack. Also put my cup the silver cup in the mouth of the sack of the youngest and his green money. So he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken. As soon as morning had gone, the men went were sent away and they and their donkeys. When they had gone out of the city, and we're not yet far off, Joseph said to his steward, get up follow them in and when you overtake them, say to them why have you repaid evil for good? Is not this one from which my lord drinks and with which he indeed practices divination, you have done evil in so doing? Whoa, what is just getting out? Joseph has set up a trap. And he's taught His servant to put the gold or the silver cup into the sack of one of his brothers, along with the grain and the money. And he sends out his service and he's gonna get his brother Benjamin back. Right. There's there's a whole bunch of people who will comment on what Joseph has been doing. Is he being truthful? Is he being false? Is he What, what's what's going on? Well, there's a whole lot of speculation here because it doesn't tell us explicitly in the text, but I think Joseph is a human being and he's struggling in his heart. And I think this is a plot where he's thinking, well, maybe I can get my brother back. I'm not I'm not sure. This is a well thought out plan. But it's it's his plan. Right? He's a human being. And so I think we need to give him that type of agency. So he overtook them. And he spoke to them the same words. And they said to him, Why does my Lord say these words Far be it from us that your servant would do such a thing? Look, we brought back to you from the land of Canaan, the money which we found in the mouth of our sacks. How then could we steal silver or gold from your Lord's house? with whomever you whomever you have your servants it is found, let him die. And we also will be my Lords slaves. It really upped the ante here, don't they? We didn't do this. Look, remember what we did. We brought our money back beforehand, because we didn't want to be thought of as thieves or spies. So if you find it all, you know, go ahead and kill that person, the rest of us will be your slaves. And he said, Now also let it be according to your words. He with whom is shall if it is found shall be my slave, and you shall be blameless. Then each man speedily let down his sack to the ground and each open his sack. So he searched, he began with the oldest and left off with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack, and they tore their clothes and each man loaded his donkey and returned to the city. So Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house, and he was still there, and they fell before him on the ground. And Joseph said to them, what deed is this? You have done? Did you not know that such a man as I can certainly practice divination? Then Judas said, What shall we say to my Lord? Shall we speak? Or shall Shall we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants. Here we are, my lord slaves and we and he also with whom the cup was found, but he said, Far be it from me that I should do so. The man in whose hand the cup was found, he shall be my slave as for you, go up and peace to your father. Notice that Joseph heaps using this idea of divination, you using black magic arts, stuff like that? I'm not sure he's being entirely truthful here. Remember, he's speaking through an interpreter. And I think he's trying to throw the weight behind things to try to show them that I know what's going on. But it's Judah. I want to pay attention to hear. It's Judah and his brothers who go there and Judah who says, What shall we say to my Lord, what shall we speak or how is it that we shall clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants? It's Judah. A student who has been humbled by Tamar. Lesson now Judah who is willing to have his own life being surety for his brother Benjamin, and now it's due to humbling himself and living up to that. Then Judah came near to him, it's as if he stepped closer to Joseph. And he said, Oh, Lord, please let your servants speak in a word with my Lord's hearing. And do not let your anger burn against your servant. For you are even like Pharaoh. My Lord asked his servant saying, Have you a father or brother and we said to my Lord, we have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, who is young, his brother is dead, and He alone is left of my mother's children, and his father loves him. Then you said to your servants, Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him. And we said, My Lord, the Lord cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die. But you said to your servants, unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall see my face no more. So it was when we went up to your servant, my father, that we told him the words of my Lord and our Father said go back and buy us a little food but we said we cannot go down. If our youngest brother is with us, and we will go down for we may not see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us. Then your servant My father said to us, you know that my wife bought me two sons. And the one went out from me. And I said, Surely He is torn in pieces, and I have not seen him since. But if you take this one from me also, and calamity befalls him, you shall bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave. I wonder, as Judas telling his father this does he remember the lie that he told his father? Does he remember putting that blood on their coat and bring it to his dad? Does he remember the wailing, the pleading, the begging of Joseph, as he retells the story? Now therefore, when I come to your servant, my father in the lab is not with us since his life is bound up in the lads life it will happen when he sees that the lad is not with us, that he will die. So your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant Our father was sorrow to the grave. For Your servant become surety for the lad to my father saying if I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before My Father forever. Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad, as a slave to my Lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers. For how shall I go up to my father, if a lot is not with me? Less perhaps I see the evil that would come upon my father. Notice the type of man that Judah has become. He tells Joseph my father is going to die if I come back without the boy. He lives up to his promise to Jacob and he tells Joseph I've become surety for him. I'll become a slave but you let them go. This man who had sold Joseph into slavery, has now become a man who cares more about his brother and his father, than even seeing his own children. He becomes the type of man that he should have been. He becomes the type of spokesman for his brothers that they need. We're going to find that it's in Judah. That at the end of the story, it's Jacob who blesses Judah. And he says from Judah are going to come the kings of Israel. And I think this is why because he sees not what happened with Tamar. They see sis repentance from that, and his stepping up to be the man of God that he is supposed to be. Well, then Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who stood by him. And he cried out, make everyone go out for me. So no one stood with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and he wept aloud in the Egyptians and of the house of Pharaoh hurted. Then Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Does my father still live but his brothers could not answer him for they were dismayed in His presence. And Joseph said to his brothers, please come near to me. So they came near. Then he said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt, but now do not be there for grieved are angry with yourselves because you sold me here for God's sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years, the famine has been in the land and there are still five years in which there will be neither ploughing nor harvesting. Pardon me, and God sent before sent me before you to prepare a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now, it was not you who sent me here. But God and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and a lord to of all his house and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Whoa. Joseph reveals himself he says this dad still alive. Says guys, don't be grieved. Don't be angry, right? i You sold me into slavery. But God had a plan for that. God sent me here that I would be able to preserve life see it's famines only been going on for two years, but there's five more years of famine. And he's put me in this place where I'm even like a father and a pharaoh. So this is what God has been doing. It's now that Joseph has started to connect the dots of God's providence seeing that it's God who's in control, and this is how he comforts his brothers and tell his brothers. And so he says in verse nine, Hurry, go up to my father and say to him, Thus says your son, Joseph, God has made me Lord of all Egypt, come down to Me and do not tarry. You shall dwell in the land of Goshen and you shall be near to me, and you and your children and your children's children, your flock and your herds all that you have there. I will provide for you less you and your household and all that you have come to poverty for there. Is are still five years of famine. And behold, your eyes shall see your eyes in the eyes of my brother Benjamin, see that it is my mouth that speaks to you. So you shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that you have seen and you shall Hurry and bring my father down here. Then he fell on his brother's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. Therefore, moreover, he kissed all his brothers and wept over them and after that all his brothers talked with him I chose if wants to reconcile with his brothers he wants to send them away and say guys, go get dad bring him down. Tell them who I am telling them I'm so alive. Tell him what God has done. That there's still five more years of famine but that I'll give you a landing Goshen I'll give you farmland come with your kids with your with your grandkids, bring your herds bring everyone for you're gonna be you're gonna be okay. Now the report of it was heard in Pharaoh's house saying Joseph's brothers have come. So please Pharaoh and his servants well, and Pharaoh said to Joseph say to your brothers, do this. Load your animals into Park, go to the land of Canaan. Bring your father and your household income near to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you will eat the fat of the land. Now you are commanded. Do this. Take hearts out of the land of Egypt. For your little ones and your wives bring your father and come also do not can be concerned about your goods for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours right now. Now Pharaoh is a guy's hey they hear about in Pharaoh says get some cards go get all your stuff. Just bring the whole family down. Right? He's excited. There's this man who had no family and was a slave and a prisoner is now his whole family's come. Then the sons of Israel did so and Joseph gave them cards according to the command of Pharaoh and he gave them provisions for the journey. He gave them he gave to all of them to each man according to changes of garments. But to Benjamin he gave 300 pieces of silver and five changes of garments. And he sent to his father these things 10 Donkeys loaded with good things of Egypt and 10 female donkeys loaded with grain bread and food for his father for the journey. So he sent his brothers away and they departed and he said to them see that you do not become troubled along the way alright guys, here's all the stuff I'm going to provide for you I'm gonna send you home. Here's all the stuff to bring the dad here's all the wells here's all the all the all the blessings, all the food, all the provisions, bring him back but there's a key thing here when you're going along the way do not become troubled. What does he mean by that? Could you imagine the turmoil in their hearts? For years upon years they have upheld this masquerade, that somehow Joseph was dead torn to pieces by animals. They lied to their dad for years. What was that walk of shame going to be like how much crow would they have to eat as they're thinking about what they're going to have to tell their dad? What they did? Could it start fights between them? Couldn't make them not want to trust each other? Could there be bitterness for how they how Joseph has treated them? It says guys don't don't let your hearts be troubled. I just don't worry about just come back. Just go get data come home. We'll finish this off this way. Then they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan Jacob their father. And they told him saying Joseph is still alive in his in his Governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart stood still because he did not believe them. But when they told him all the words what Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the cards which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob was their father revived. Then Israel said is enough. Joseph, my son is still alive and I will go see him before I die. Right They come and they tell their dad and his heart stops. What? What? Joseph is still alive. I don't believe it and they tell him everything. They show him everything. His Spirit revives the old man who has been in a depressive state, despairing of his life clinging to Benjamin now he says all right before I die, I'm gonna get to see my son. He had thought for years his son was dead. Now he's alive. This is a beautiful, beautiful story. of God's providence of redemption of God caring for this family of God keeping the promises should be one that should encourage us with trusting the Lord even in the midst of horrible sin and ugly treatment from other people I just want to leave you with Trust the Lord. People might mean things for evil but the Lord works all things together for good for those who love Him and who have been called according to His purposes. Trust in Him trust in his golden thread of Providence through the tapestry of history. He is bringing about his ends. But the way he does it is often man, we just scratch our heads. We don't know what he's doing, and why he's doing it the way he's doing it. But we can trust that the end is going to be glorious. Let's pray. God you are an amazing Sovereign Lord. Father, we pray that we would be those who would take seriously sin and as we seen it in this story, the damaging effects of it on people's lives and hearts. But Father, we also thank you that in this story, we see your care and we know that you have given us a surety. You have given us Jesus Christ who has redeemed us from death and sin. Lord, we pray that you would let us walk in your ways and trust you always in Jesus's name. Amen. Well, may you walk today, trusting in Jesus Christ, holding to His promises, and I'll see you tomorrow. Bye. Transcribed by https://otter.ai