21
¶ And they said one to another, We are
verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul,
when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come
upon us. 22 And Reuben answered them,
saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye
would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is required. 23 And they knew not that Joseph understood
them; for he spake unto them by an interpreter. 24 And he turned himself about from them, and
wept; and returned to them again, and communed with them, and took from them
Simeon, and bound him before their eyes. 25
Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn, and to restore
every man’s money into his sack, and to give them provision for the way: and
thus did he unto them. 26 And they laded
their asses with the corn, and departed thence. 27 And as one of them opened his sack to give
his ass provender in the inn, he espied his money; for, behold, it was in his
sack’s mouth. 28 And he said unto his
brethren, My money is restored; and, lo, it is even in my sack: and their heart
failed them, and they were afraid, saying one to another, What is this that God
hath done unto us?
The brothers’ guilt in regard to Joseph is brought
before their minds. They believe that they are in trouble now, forced to pay,
for what they did to him. Reuben reminded them that he had pleaded with them to
do no harm to Joseph. He views this as cosmic justice for what they did to
Joseph. It was acknowledged by preachers such as Jonathan Edwards in his sermon
entitled Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God that sin carries with it the burden of justice. We do awful things and
awful things come back on us. Heathens understand this in the Hindu concept of
Karma and mostly in its popular Western application of getting what you have
coming to you. God has His ways of dealing with people, sometimes slowly, and
nations, sometimes slowly, in regard to their wickedness and evil treatment of
others but God repeatedly warns people;
Genesis
4:10 And he said, What hast thou done?
the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.
Numbers
32:23 But if ye will not do so, behold,
ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.
You cannot escape the evil that you do to others. Do
you beat-up your wife or children? It will come back to you. Are you cruel to
other people or to animals? God sees all that you do. The fact that some people
seem to get away with much evil is no guarantee that you can walk in your
wickedness with impunity. Bible figures lamented what seemed like a lack of
needed judgment at times.
Jeremiah
12:1 Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I
plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the
way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very
treacherously?
But, judgment does come and God does visit those who
act wickedly. The brothers see this situation they are in as just payment for
their mistreatment of Joseph.
Joseph hears, of course, what they are saying but
since Joseph feigned to be Egyptian he spoke through an interpreter so they didn’t
know he spoke their language. We use the word interpreter today for a person who translates languages, for
instance, at the UN.
Joseph can’t help but cry but he doesn’t want them to
see him. He then bound Simeon and sent the rest of them away filled with food
and provisions for the journey home but he also ordered their money to be
returned to them.
When they realize that they have their money back they
are terrified and ask What is this that
God hath done unto us? Clearly, they believe that they are going to be in
deep trouble with this Egyptian government official. They have no idea that it
is Joseph or what he is up to.
This is important to add to the long list of things
that indicate the Bible is telling us that there is no such thing as blind
chance, that God works through our reality, through people and events, to accomplish
something which we may have no understanding of in our finite minds. Moderns
would do well to ask this question when things go awry or seem unexplainable. What is this that God hath done unto us?
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