Genesis
42:29 ¶ And they came unto Jacob their
father unto the land of Canaan, and told him all that befell unto them; saying,
30 The man, who is the lord of the land,
spake roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country. 31 And we said unto him, We are true men; we are
no spies: 32 We be twelve brethren, sons
of our father; one is not, and the youngest is this day with our father in the
land of Canaan. 33 And the man, the lord
of the country, said unto us, Hereby shall I know that ye are true men; leave
one of your brethren here with me, and take food for the famine of your
households, and be gone: 34 And bring
your youngest brother unto me: then shall I know that ye are no spies, but that
ye are true men: so will I deliver you your brother, and ye shall traffick in
the land. 35 And it came to pass as they
emptied their sacks, that, behold, every man’s bundle of money was in his sack:
and when both they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid.
36 And Jacob their father said unto
them, Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and
ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me. 37 And Reuben spake unto his father, saying,
Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee: deliver him into my hand, and I
will bring him to thee again. 38 And he
said, My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he is
left alone: if mischief befall him by the way in the which ye go, then shall ye
bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.
The
brothers return to their father and report what happened to them. Jacob joins
in their fear. Reuben offers his own sons as hostage to Jacob if he does not
take Benjamin to Egypt and return him again. Their situation must be most
desperate. But Jacob refuses to let his precious youngest son, who may be a
young adult now, go. Losing him will be the death of Jacob he says.
The
earth has been drying out since the Flood. Land use studies of the Ancient Near
East show the climate was cooler before 1,000 BC. and better suited to crops
and forests. The Scriptures themselves give evidence to this wetter, cooler
climate so unlike the arid landscape we see today. It is likened to the Garden
of Eden.
Genesis
13:10 ¶ And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld
all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD
destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of
Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.
Exodus
3:7 ¶ And the LORD said, I have surely
seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry
by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; 8 And I am come down to deliver them out of the
hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land
and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the
Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the
Hivites, and the Jebusites.
Josephus,
chronicler of the war against the Romans, tells of the climate himself at
Christ’s time.
Its
nature is wonderful as well as its beauty; its soil is so fruitful that all
sorts of trees can grow upon it, and the inhabitants accordingly plant all
sorts of trees there; for the temper of the air is so well mixed, that it
agrees very well with those several sorts, particularly walnuts, which require
the coldest air, flourish there in vast plenty; there are palm trees also,
which grow best in hot air; fig trees also and olives grow near them, which yet
require an air that is more temperate. One may call this place the ambition of
nature, where it forces those plants that are naturally enemies to one another
to agree together; it is a happy contention of the seasons, as if every one of
them laid claim to this country; for it not only nourishes different sorts of
autumnal fruit beyond men’s expectation, but preserves them a great while; it
supplies men with the principal fruits, with grapes and figs continually,
during ten months of the year and the rest of the fruits as they become ripe
together through the whole year”
(The Jewish War, Book 3, Chapter 10:8).
So, no matter what you’ve been told
the testimony of Scripture and history shows that this area was once a fertile
place that was a great producer of food. The famine must have been a very great
shock and source of dismay to the inhabitants. Many people probably starved to
death. His status as the eldest son, this famine, and his brother’s hostage
state were great motivators to get Reuben to make his offer.
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