Sermon preached on Genesis 42 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 07/07/2024 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
We continue our sermon series through Genesis and find Joseph reunited with his brothers, even though they don’t realize it. Remember, that this section in Genesis began back in chapter 37 with Joseph’s ten older brothers hating him for various reasons, including his tattling on them, his dreams, and their envy because their father Jacob favored Joseph. That’s when they captured him and threw him into a pit. First, they had thought of leaving him to die. Then, they changed their mind and decided to trade his life for some money, selling him as a slave to traders headed to Egypt. What great evil these brothers did against Joseph. They then lied about it all to their father, who was so full of grief that he refused to ever be comforted. Indeed, we see today, some twenty years later that their great sin still hung clearly over their head. Let us consider that today, as well as the redemptive work God was beginning to do in their hearts, even through Joseph.
We’ll begin first to consider how their past sin against Joseph clearly haunted them yet. From start to finish in this chapter, they are repeatedly reminded of their great sin. They are plagued by it with seemingly everything reminding them of their unspeakable evil, of their dark sinful secret. It’s a secret they’ve had to hold, the ten of them, this entire time. But as Numbers 32:23 later would say, “Your sin will find you out.”
Survey with me some of the ways they are reminded of their sin. Start by looking at the opening verses. The seven-year famine had begun to hit there at Canaan too. Jacob learns there is grain for sale in Egypt. He sends his sons down there to buy grain for the family. But he only sends ten of them. He will not send the eleventh son, Benjamin. Verse 4 tells us that Jacob was afraid harm would happen to him. In other words, he’s not so concerned for the other ten. Jacob had only two sons with his favorite wife Rachel, first Joseph, and now Benjamin. It is clear, that with Joseph gone, Benjamin had now become Jacob’s favorite. The brothers thought getting rid of Joseph would solve this problem, but it didn’t. Sin can’t truly solve our problems. But the point is that the fact that Jacob won’t send Benjamin is a clear reminder to the brothers about how their sin has still left their father’s soul marred.
Another way we can see their past sin is over the discussion here of if they are honest men. In the passage, the question is whether they are spies or not. Joseph accuses them of being spies and the question is raised if they are honest men or not. In verse 11 they claim to be honest men. In verse 19, Joseph still wants them to prove it. But you see, the heart of their evil past sin involved their horrible deception to their father. Remember, they staged Joseph’s cloak with blood and brought that home to their father to make it look like an animal killed them. They know their past is not one of honesty.
Then we see their words to one another in verse 21, when they think they are speaking privately. This is their conversation after they spend three days in jail before Joseph finally is ready to let all but one of them return home. In verse 21, they confess their guilt to each other about what they did to Joseph. See their language of “distress”. They relate the distress that Joseph had when they sold him off to slavery to the distress that they are now having. Reuben doesn’t give them any relief, but further accuses them, reminding them how he tried to stop them, and telling them that now a reckoning has come. Again, think of how all this shows how their sin had surely been plaguing them all this time. I mean, why do they bring this up here, something they did decades ago? Why do they draw a connection between the two? Surely, it’s because they have felt the weight of their guilt ever since then. Now, they are discerning that the Lord is calling them to account because of this.
And then you have the money they find in the sack in verse 28. Joseph allows them all to return home, except Simeon, and on the way back one of them opens their sack and finds his money returned to him. This was supposed to be for the payment of the grain, but there it is. They are terrified when they see this, and ask, “What is this that God has done to us?” Again, think of how this shows what is going on in their heart, the sort of conviction and dread of judgment that is happening. Imagine how most people would respond in such a situation. Probably, many people would just celebrate and keep the money. The better people among us would say, “There must be a mistake,” and try to return the money. But here, plagued with their guilt, they think finding free money is God’s judgment. They are afraid this is God setting up their further doom and destruction.
Then they return home, and still they can’t escape reminders of their sin. Look at verse 36. After they report everything that happened to Jacob, he himself accuses them. He not only mentions how they lost Simeon and is afraid they would now lose Benajamin, but Jacob mentions losing Joseph too, subtly implicating them in that. But they know that they were at fault for Joseph’s loss, and they are yet reminded how their father is still in pain over this loss. Jacob again restates this in verse 38 when he makes it abundantly clear to them that he will not let Benjamin go with them to Egypt, lest he lose him too like he already lost his brother Joseph.
I hope this brief survey makes the point clearly. Even after so many years, these ten brothers were riddled with guilt over what they did. Their sin haunts them. They believe they are beginning to experience God’s great judgment because of it.
Let us now in our second point turn and consider this passage from Joseph’s perspective. What we find is that he has one of those light bulb moments of recognition of God’s plan. Let’s observe that and see what he does with this information. We see that recognition in verse 9. Joseph is there in Egypt serving in his special royal position as governor and as overseer of the selling of grain. His brothers show up, and they don’t recognize him, but Joseph definitely recognizes them. Surely, Joseph’s appearance would have significantly changed since they saw him last. So then, the ten brothers come near and bow down before him. Joseph decides to not yet reveal his identity to them. But that is when we see him remember the two dreams that God sent him in his youth. Those two dreams foretold how one day they would bow down before him. The dreams had come to pass. I think what Joseph is realizing here is that this was all part of God’s plan the whole time. Joseph in that moment begins to recognize the LORD in all this and that simultaneously informs Joseph how he needs to react to his brothers.
So then, how does Joseph respond? I might imagine he might respond with anger and hatred toward these brothers who had so hated him before. But that’s not what we see, and I believe it’s because he realizes God has a plan to save and restore and bless, and Joseph is looking to align his heart with God’s plan. We get a clue into his heart there in verse 24. That’s when he overhears them talking about how they had mistreated him. That’s when they are basically confessing their sin to each other, admitting how wrong they were. Joseph’s respond is to weep. I could imagine others could be stirred in anger at that moment, but Joseph has a heart that weeps for the whole situation. There is much to weep about. To weep not only over the troubles he had to go through because of their sin, but to weep over his brothers who so sinned against them. Do you weep for people who’ve wronged you because you recognize how bad it was for them to do that?
And so Joseph weeps, and then Joseph proceeds to send them all home, except Simeon, with not only the bags of grain, but also with their money returned to them. Joseph wanted his family to be cared for, so he makes sure this grain gets sent back home quickly. But Joseph also further blesses them by essentially not charging them for the grain. We’ll see in the next chapter they try to give the money back, but they are told to keep it. So, Joseph works to show love and kindness to his family including his brothers.
That being said, what we do find Joseph doing through much of the rest of the chapter is testing them. And I believe this is part of his recognizing God’s work in all of this. Joseph has begun to discern that the whole reason he ended up in Egypt was so that he could save his family when this terrible famine hit. God had great plans for his family, this chosen race of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But Joseph also recognizes that in order for his brothers to really enjoy the blessed future God held out for him, they would need to be different than how they were twenty years ago. In other words, Joseph wants to see that in the last twenty years that they have recognized their sin, and really began to turn from it, and began to live more godly lives. So, Joseph begins to test them to see if they had grown from their former folly.
Think of how Joseph begins to setup that test here. On the surface, Joseph is accusing them of being dishonest spies. He says they will need to prove their honesty, and ultimately the setup becomes that they will need to prove their story including the detail about having this other brother back home, which we know is Benjamin. At first, Joseph threatens to put them all in prison and allow just one of them to go back and get the brother. He puts them all in that pit of a prison for 3 days, testing them even there, before Joseph finally tells them he has changed his mind and will only require one of them to remain in prison while they go get their brother. We might recognize the similarity with how at first they had kept Joseph in a pit planning to kill him and then changed their mind and allowed him to be sold instead, but I digress. On another side note, we might also ask why Joseph chose Simeon to stay behind in prison. I could imagine two possibilities. One, it might be that Simeon the second born would remain confined until Benjamin the second born is brought. Or maybe this is to recognize that when Joseph was sold into slavery, Simeon would have been the eldest brother there, since Reuben was not around at that moment. Maybe this recognizes a greater culpability then on Simeon’s part, but again I digress.
But realize how this will begin to test them. After such a terrible experience there in Egypt, where they probably feel they barely escaped with their lives, would they love their brother Simeon enough to come back for him? And the returned money only sweetens the test. Because if they come back, they will surely need to try to return the money. But instead, they each could decide here if they’d rather keep the money instead of Simeon — you know, like how they chose money over Joseph when they sold him. So, this will be a test, but we’ll find next chapter it is only the first part of the setup of an even greater test, when they will be tested to see if they will love Benjamin over their own lives, or would they sell him like they sold Joseph?
And so, what I want us to see here in this second point is the way Joseph really loves his brothers here, after all their history. And I believe it is especially because when Joseph recognizes his earlier dreams being fulfilled that Joseph began to recognize God’s heart in all this. Later, we will see Joseph repeatedly testify to this. And so, Joseph does not take personal vengeance here, but instead takes the role of showing God’s heart to them. A heart that shows mercy, compassion, and love, toward the goal of his family’s physical salvation and even his brother’s spiritual restoration.
In our last point for today, I want to turn back to the brothers again and ask what they might have been asking at this point. Confronted so clearly and repeatedly by their past sin against Joseph, they might be saying, “What shall we do?” That’s the question many Jews asked after God convicted them through Peter’s preaching of their sin of killing their brother and Lord, Jesus, the Christ. I could imagine that’s what the brothers might be feeling by this point. Their sin so haunts them. But what can they do about it? Isn’t that the trouble with many sins, you can just feel powerless to really atone for what you did wrong?
Well, they assume they can’t do anything about Joseph at this point, but by the time they get home they know they can still do something about their brother Simeon. Poor Simeon is there in Egypt in that pit of a prison. And so, we don’t see them saying, let’s keep the money in exchange for Simeon’s life. No, they come home and explain everything to their father. It is very clear what is going on. They are basically telling their father, here’s the grain, now give us Benjamin because we need to go back right now to Egypt to save Simeon. So, I do think we see what surely Joseph is hoping to see, that their hearts have changed and grown since their former days. They want show love for their brother Simeon by going back to get him.
But then they hit a hitch in their plans. Father won’t let Benjamin go. Isn’t that how things work sometime? Maybe in the past you didn’t do things right, but God has convicted you and taught you and grown you, and you finally, on your time, want to now do the right thing. But then something gets in your way, and you are prevented from doing the good thing you know you are supposed to do.
That’s when Reuben, the firstborn, again speaks up. Look at verse 37. Reuben offers the lives of his two sons as a pledge for the security of Benjamin. Reuben was the one who tried to protect Joseph before, though he joined with the brother’s coverup in the aftermath. Here his offer is surely an effort on his part to make things right. Reuben basically pledges his sons as atonement should they fail to return Benjamin. Yet, Reuben’s offer will understandably not satisfy his father. And so Reuben specifically finds himself unable to actually make things right.
Let us recognize in this third point their inability to really solve this problem. This is how our passage ends. It ends with Simeon still stuck in prison. Their father is yet plagued with grief over the loss of Joseph so long before. They are yet haunted by their sin against Joseph from years past. And they are faced with the ever-growing threat of starvation as the famine continues to rage and their food supplies decrease daily. Our passage ends without any solutions.
Yet, while this chapter has no solution yet for their sin, may this point us to Christ and the gospel. That is where we find the ultimate solution for sin. No mere human can truly atone for their sin on their own. If any would be redeemed from their sin, a satisfactory solution would be needed. Jesus would bring that solution. Jesus offered himself as a propitiation for the sins of his people, for all who would acknowledge their guilt and turn to him for forgiveness and grace. That atonement he would offer truly does satisfy the Father in the most pleasing of ways. While today’s passage ends without a solution for the sons of Israel, we remember that God has ultimately provided a solution for sin in Jesus.
So, while today’s passage does not yet end with redemption for these sons of Israel, God was beginning to work redemptively in their hearts. It is actually good that they begin to really feel guilty over what they had done. This is true for us today, too. Until we are cut to the heart over our sin, we’ll never look to Jesus for mercy and grace.
Let us truly mourn over our sin. Let us not think it light or excuse it. Don’t be tempted to say something like, “Well, my sin wasn’t as bad as these ten brothers.” All of us have sinned greatly and in many terrible ways against God. If you won’t acknowledge that, then you will have no part in his salvation.
But if you do, if you turn in true contrition to our Lord Jesus Christ, know that you will have found true redemption. You will find that Christ has done what would be impossible for you to do. He truly covers and atones for all our sin. You can’t do that, no matter how hard you may try. Yes, when we sin, we should do what is in our power to make things right with those we have sinned against. But we must always see that we still need Jesus to truly put our sin behind us.
Saints of God, we who have so turned to Jesus, know that in Christ your sin has been forgiven. In light of such mercy, let us each truly strive to, “Go, and sin no more.”
Amen.
Copyright © 2024 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
