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Sermon preached on Genesis 44 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 07/28/2024 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Today we come to the climax of Joseph’s testing of his brothers. Had they truly changed from what they were like in the past. Twenty years prior they had chosen to sell their brother Joseph off to slavery. Joseph had been their father Israel’s favorite son, and they hated him for it. So when they sold Joseph, they chose money over their brother. They simultaneously chose their own happiness over their father’s when they got rid of his beloved son. Now that God had reunited them, Joseph wanted to know if his brothers had come to repent of their former evil?
Remember from last week that we ended with Joseph and his brothers having a sort of veiled reconciliation. Outwardly, Joseph received his brothers into his home with generous hospitality including a great feast, but his brothers didn’t know it was Joseph. Joseph was waiting to reveal his true identity until he had finished testing their hearts. Joseph has witnessed some degree of remorse and change on their part, but today’s chapter will truly put them to the test. If there would be real reconciliation between them, Joseph wanted to confirm that they had come to a genuine repentance over what they had done to both him and their father. That is what we will study today.
We begin with our first point considering verses 1-12, where we see Joseph’s final test for them put into action. The setting is the next morning after Joseph had feasted with his brothers in his home. They are preparing to return home with the grain they had purchased from Egypt. Starting in verses 1-2, Joseph instructs his servant to load some extra provisions in each of his brothers’ sacks, lots of food, as well as to return the money they had used to pay for the grain. This is more of his gracious blessings that he had shown them on their first trip. But then he also has his steward hide his silver cup in Benjamin’s bag. He instructs the steward to overtake them shortly after they leave town with this accusation of them stealing the silver cup. That is what he does.
Let us pause and appreciate how this silver cup is described to them. In verse 5, it is described as a cup for practicing divination. In verse 15, that idea of practicing divination is again mentioned to them. Clearly, there is some emphasis here that this cup is a religious cup. And from the brother’s perspective, this would be a pagan cup. God’s people did not practice this divination which was known as scyphomancy which tried to foretell the future through observing liquid in such a cup. That’s what the heathen peoples did, like these pagan Egyptians. To these Israelite brothers, such a cup used for divination would have been not that much different than a sort of heathen idol. You might recall, back in Genesis 35, upon returning to the Promised Land, their father had made the whole household get rid of all their idols with their false worship. They were not going to be a people who worshipped idols anymore or do heathen practices like divination. So, you could imagine how this only made the accusation all the more odious. Not only are they accused of stealing something valuable, but something sacrilegious.
They would surely not have stolen and hidden something like that, would they? Then again, we can also remember back to Genesis 31, that their step-mother Rachel, indeed Joseph’s own mother, had done just that. That was prior to Jacob’s later cleansing the household of idols. Back then, Rachel had stolen her father Laban’s idols and hid them when Laban came to retrieve them. Interestingly, this scene plays out in a similar way, drawing us to compare and contrast. As Laban came and accused Jacob of stealing his idols, Jacob professed innocence and offers the life for anyone in his camp found guilty should they be found hiding Laban’s idols. In that case, Rachel indeed stole them, even though Jacob didn’t know. But in the mercy of God, God ordained for Rachel’s hiding of the idols to not be discovered, and her life was spared.
But now, in ironic reversal, a similar search takes place after their brothers also assert their innocence. Indeed, they are innocent of this particular accusation. Yet, in suspenseful anticipation, the steward searches the brothers’ sacks, one a time, from oldest to youngest, and the fateful silver cup is found in Benjamin’s bag. They hadn’t stolen it, but there it was in his sack. Their mother Rachel had gotten away with her idolatrous theft while they were found guilty of stealing this pagan paraphernalia that they hadn’t taken.
This then leads us to the second point as we see the test unfold and begin to recognize their brother’s repentance. When I speak of repentance here, what I mean is that Joseph’s test essentially is recreating a situation similar from twenty years before when they had so sinned against him and their father. Would they repeat their past evils again, or would this time they do the right thing, showing their repentance?
Praise be to God, we see real evidence of a changed heart. The first bit of evidence of their repentance is in verse 13. When the cup is discovered with Benjamin, they all tear their clothes and head back to the city in Egypt. When Benjamin is found with the cup, they could have all just gone home and left him there in Egypt to a life of servitude. But that is not what the brothers do. They will not return home without Benjamin. They all go together with Benjamin to face the music before Joseph, whom of course they still don’t even know is Joseph.
Their repentance comes out even further by what they say when they come back before Joseph. Judah takes the lead in speaking for the group. In verse 16, he says, “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.” A moment ago they swore how they were innocent about the cup. Now they say they are guilty and that God has found them out. Clearly what they have in mind is their great sin against Joseph and their father those twenty years ago. We’ve seen in the last few chapters how that sin continued to plague them. They had tried to hide it, but they had been found out. They conclude here that is why the cup was found here in Benjamin’s bag. They believe this is God visiting their iniquity upon them after all this time. They don’t have anything to say to defend themselves. Rachel had kept her stolen idols secret. But the uncovering of this supposedly stolen cup in their hands leaves them exposed. They believe God has finally uncovered their secret sin. They believe their judgment has finally come. So, they tell Joseph to enslave them all. Their punishment would be what they put on Joseph twenty years before. The punishment would in some sense fit the crime.
But Joseph denies their proposal. He insists that only Benjamin should be retained and enslaved. This would be justice from his eyes, because only Benjamin was found with the stolen cup. So then, Joseph gives them one final test in verse 17. He says, “Only the man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my servant. But as for you, go up in peace to your father.” At that moment, the brothers could have walked out the door. They could have left Benjamin behind and returned to the Promised Land, never to look back. But praise be to God, that is not what happened.
Let us me connect the dots here to show how this really represents their repentance. Regarding Benjamin, their desire to see Benjamin saved is a turning from their previous bad treatment of Joseph. They will not sell out Benjamin for their own wellbeing. And regarding their father, before they showed no real concern about how their action against Joseph would have devastated their father. Since then, they have been witness to the pain they caused him for twenty years. Now they show repentance by not wanting their father to hurt any further. The two points of their former sin against Joseph and their father get revisited here by the amazing test that Joseph arranged for them. And praise be to God, they demonstrate a repentant heart in this double-pronged test.
This leads us then to our third point, to see how this reaches in crescendo by Judah’s giving of himself as a surety for Benjamin. This is verses 18 through the end of the chapter. Remember, last chapter Judah vowed this to their father Israel, so that he finally let the brothers return to Egypt with Benjamin. Israel was so concerned that something might happen to Benjamin, his last remaining son from his favorite wife Rachel. But Judah offered himself as surety for Benjamin. Genesis 43:9, Judah said to his father, “I will be a pledge of his safety. From my hand you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever.” Here, Judah particularly is tested if he will honor this sacred pledge. And praise be to God, he does indeed fulfill it.
So, Judah steps up there in verse 18 to explain the history and background of the situation to Joseph. That recounting of the situation is there in verses 18-29. The key point is to establish how the wellbeing of their father, indeed his very life, is bound up with the life of Benjamin at this point. Judah believes that should he also love Benjamin, like he had last Joseph, that it would be more than he could handle. Judah asserts that it would literally kill his father from the sorrow upon sorrows it would bring to him.
That is when Judah explains how he pledged his own life as a surety, verse 32. Remember from last week, I described that this is Judah basically offering a personal guarantee for Benjamin’s safety, and offering his own life and standing as collateral. I gave the example of posting bail, that your bail guarantees you’ll come back for the trial, and when you do you get your bail money back. The bail is a surety or guarantee of performing your duty. Well, Judah’s pledge or guarantee is himself. By his own life, he guarantees to bring back Benjamin safely. Here then, Judah fulfills that promise. He turns himself over to be taken in place of Benjamin. Benjamin and the rest of the brothers can return home safely. Neither will his father have to lose his favored remaining son of Rachel. Judah’s integrity is tested here to his vowed pledge of his own life. And Judah shows himself faithful to that pledge. Praise be to God.
Think of how Genesis has shown Judah’s growth. Remember, back in Genesis 37, it was Judah’s shameful idea to sell Joseph off into Egyptian slavery. He’s the one who spoke up and convinced the brothers to do such an evil thing. But then, we had that interesting, dare I say strange, interlude of a chapter in Genesis 38 where we learned about Judah and Tamar. There, interrupting this multi-chapter account of Joseph was that chapter about Judah and his family. There it begins by him marrying a Canaanite woman, which itself seemed to be another example of his bad choices in his youth, when so much of Genesis warned against God’s people marrying Canaanite women. And then we see Judah lose two of his three sons. He learned what is was like to lose all but one of his children. He is very afraid to lose the last one, and starts to act unrighteously out of that fear. But then he learned a lesson from his daughter-in-law Tamar, the more-righteous-than-himself Tamar. He learned from Tamar that we still need to do the righteous thing even in the face of fear and danger. There, the rather unexpected hero is Tamar, who is a foil to Judah, teaching Judah of the chosen line what righteousness should look like. Indeed, in Tamar’s faith, she found herself ingrafted into both the line of promise, and even into the line of the future Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ. She becomes the greater mother of Jesus, but in her actions that help redeem Judah, Judah too will then become the greater father of Jesus.
My point is that the strange chapter of Genesis 38 with Judah and Tamar was another sort of Romans 8:28 time in Judah’s life. It was part of how God was using all things to teach and grow Judah, to even prepare him to do what he does in our chapter today. Judah shows a great concern for his father to not lose this remaining son of Benjamin, and in that love, he offers himself to take Benjamin’s place, even essentially at the cost of his own life and future.
As a side note, this act of humble service by Judah actually is part of preparing him for future leadership among the tribes of Israel. While Joseph here is clearly the leader for now among the Israelite brothers, there would come a future when the scepter of leadership would find its resting place in the tribe of Judah, in his greater son King David, and in his greatest son, King Jesus.
But for the moment, Judah’s actions here result in the restoration of the brothers. This will lead to the preservation of the family through Joseph in Egypt, until one day they could come back to the Promised Land. That will ultimately result in one day the ultimate Savior and King being born through Judah’s lineage.
Think of what that King Jesus would have to face. He would be faced with the sons of Israel again facing destruction. Jesus’ own heavenly father loved those chosen sons of Israel, yet justice demanded their destruction. That was because the sons of Israel had committed so very many sins. They would not be able to “clear themselves”. Their guilt will be exposed. Judgment would be at hand. They deserved not just to be slaves but to be put to death. But that is when Jesus, the greater son of Judah, in love for his Heavenly Father and in love for his brethren, offered himself as a surety for them. Even unto actual death. Jesus did this to save those chosen sons of Israel, and even to save us. For in God’s perfect plan, his elect people included some of us from the nations that he chose to save. Knowing the foreordination of his Father, Christ offered himself as a surety in advance for us who are his elect from all the nations. He did this to atone for all the sin we would eventually commit after we came into this world. Praise our Savior Jesus, the Lamb from the tribe of Judah!
Stepping back, let us note how our chapter ends today. I know I’ve already begun to tell you about the good news and the great salvation that ends up happening, but that good news really isn’t until next chapter. Today’s chapter ends with Judah giving up his life for Benjamin. By analogy, you could think of today’s passage like a Good Friday sermon. It ends with basically the death of Judah, at least in principle. We’ll have to wait until next week when we see his life restored.
In conclusion, let me offer some application by giving us the gospel. If you are here today and have not know the true religion, you need Jesus. Maybe you’ve held on to your false gods, maybe even in secret, that you thought you could hide them. If that is you, I call you to repent and turn to Jesus in faith and be saved.
But today’s passage does raise the question for us all to ask of our heart: Do you have a genuine heart of repentance? Joseph tested the genuineness of his brother’s repentance. Let us each look at our heart to see if we have a genuine heart of repentance that has turned to Jesus and trusted in him for grace. If you do, you can be confident that the surety of Jesus has saved you. If you do not, may the power of the Holy Spirit working right now through his Word enliven your hearts. That you would see that you are dead without Christ, that you would see that your sin cannot be hidden, that it will find you out. That you would see that your sin is even greater than you imagined, and that you cannot do anything to clear yourself. That you would see that you must flee to Christ as your surety.
Then you will know how deeply the father loves you. Then, you can have a sure assurance of your forgiveness. Then, you can be confident that God is working together all things in your life for your good. This assurance is something our Lord wants you to have. Do not resist this self-examination, but see it as an opportunity for God to further refine your heart of faith and thus grow in you in a more firm assurance of your salvation.
Amen.
Copyright © 2024 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
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