Genesis, chapter 43
Genesis
43:1 ¶ And the famine was sore in the
land. 2 And it came to pass, when they
had eaten up the corn which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said
unto them, Go again, buy us a little food. 3
And Judah spake unto him, saying, The man did solemnly protest unto us,
saying, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you. 4 If thou wilt send our brother with us, we
will go down and buy thee food: 5 But if
thou wilt not send him, we will not go down: for the man said unto us, Ye shall
not see my face, except your brother be with you. 6 And Israel said, Wherefore dealt ye so ill
with me, as to tell the man whether ye had yet a brother? 7 And they said, The man asked us straitly of
our state, and of our kindred, saying, Is your father yet alive? have ye
another brother? and we told him according to the tenor of these words: could
we certainly know that he would say, Bring your brother down? 8 And Judah said unto Israel his father, Send
the lad with me, and we will arise and go; that we may live, and not die, both
we, and thou, and also our little ones. 9
I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him: if I bring
him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for
ever: 10 For except we had lingered,
surely now we had returned this second time.
So,
now there is nothing left of what Joseph had given his brothers. The famine is
getting worse. Jacob tells them to go again to Egypt to buy food. Now, it is
Judah who says to let Benjamin go and offers himself up as a guarantee against
the young man’s return.
First
Reuben then Judah tried to persuade their father to let Benjamin go with them.
Genesis
43:11 ¶ And their father Israel said
unto them, If it must be so now, do this; take of the best fruits in the land
in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little
honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds: 12
And take double money in your hand; and the money that was brought again
in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again in your hand; peradventure it was an
oversight: 13 Take also your brother,
and arise, go again unto the man: 14 And
God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other
brother, and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.
This
passage shows that it is the basic food crop that is affected by the famine and
not other substances so that the famine has most likely been caused by a
failure of the wheat crop throughout the Ancient Near East over several years.
The reason I believe this famine has been caused by back to back wheat crop
failures due to disease or other causes is that growing almonds takes a lot of
water and I’ve even read it takes ten gallons of water to grow one almond.
We’ve seen recently by the drought in California that drought takes its toll on
nut and honey production. Egypt itself was not dependent upon rain as it was
for the annual flooding of the Nile River. Taken together the evidence appears
to indicate that it is not a lack of rainfall and water that hindered the
wheat, the corn crop, but some other factor such as disease or even too much
water. We must remember that many crop failures and famines in Medieval England
were caused by too much rainfall. Nevertheless, Jacob’s family must have wheat
from Egypt which would one day provide a great deal of the wheat necessary for
the survival of Rome, the capital of empire, at the time of Jesus’ earthly
ministry.
The
famine was sore, very severe. See the definition of sore linked by and with great in a similar context.
Deuteronomy
6:22 And the LORD shewed signs and
wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt,
upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes:
This
has been the cause of many food riots in the recent past, when the cost of food
rises too high. Americans spend about 20% of their incomes on food while some
countries, particularly in Africa, have to spend 80% of their income on food.
If
you want to pick a single indicator of where political instability will occur
in the modern world; political, social, or economic then the price of grain is
your best bet. Other factors such as tribal hatreds, lack of participation in
the political process, etc. set the stage but the rising cost of food is the
tipping point. Desperation drives revolutions.
Back
to the passage, the brothers must go back to Egypt, and to Joseph.
Genesis
43:15 ¶ And the men took that present,
and they took double money in their hand, and Benjamin; and rose up, and went
down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph. 16
And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the ruler of his
house, Bring these men home, and slay, and make ready; for these men shall dine
with me at noon. 17 And the man did as
Joseph bade; and the man brought the men into Joseph’s house. 18 And the men were afraid, because they were
brought into Joseph’s house; and they said, Because of the money that was
returned in our sacks at the first time are we brought in; that he may seek
occasion against us, and fall upon us, and take us for bondmen, and our asses.
19 And they came near to the steward of
Joseph’s house, and they communed with him at the door of the house, 20 And said, O sir, we came indeed down at the
first time to buy food: 21 And it came
to pass, when we came to the inn, that we opened our sacks, and, behold, every
man’s money was in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight: and we have
brought it again in our hand. 22 And
other money have we brought down in our hands to buy food: we cannot tell who
put our money in our sacks. 23 And he
said, Peace be to you, fear not: your God, and the God of your father, hath
given you treasure in your sacks: I had your money. And he brought Simeon out
unto them. 24 And the man brought the
men into Joseph’s house, and gave them water, and they washed their feet; and
he gave their asses provender. 25 And
they made ready the present against Joseph came at noon: for they heard that
they should eat bread there.
The
brothers take the amount of money they intended to spend on the last trip that
was returned to them and the same amount of money again, to buy more food. They
were then greeted at Joseph’s house in a manner that probably surprised them
somewhat. Joseph’s steward, whom we would call a butler today, calms their
fears and gives them the story about the money being in their sacks on the last
trip being a miracle. This is the steward’s story, perhaps ordered by Joseph.
The reader is under no requirement to view this as from God Himself. Joseph had
their money put back in their sacks. In a way it was God working through Joseph
who returned their money.
Genesis
43:26 ¶ And when Joseph came home, they
brought him the present which was in their hand into the house, and bowed
themselves to him to the earth. 27 And
he asked them of their welfare, and said, Is your father well, the old man of
whom ye spake? Is he yet alive? 28 And
they answered, Thy servant our father is in good health, he is yet alive. And
they bowed down their heads, and made obeisance. 29 And he lifted up his eyes, and saw his
brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, and said, Is this your younger brother, of
whom ye spake unto me? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son. 30 And Joseph made haste; for his bowels did
yearn upon his brother: and he sought where to weep; and he entered into his
chamber, and wept there. 31 And he
washed his face, and went out, and refrained himself, and said, Set on bread.
32 And they set on for him by himself,
and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians, which did eat with him, by
themselves: because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews; for
that is an abomination unto the Egyptians. 33
And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and
the youngest according to his youth: and the men marvelled one at another.
34 And he took and sent messes unto them
from before him: but Benjamin’s mess was five times so much as any of theirs.
And they drank, and were merry with him.
Joseph
is now overwhelmed at the presence of his beloved brother, Benjamin. The
brothers are amazed at the feast set before them. The Egyptians not eating side
by side with the Hebrews reveals the hostility and disgust these civilized
people of one of the ancient world’s superpowers feel toward these herders from
the area we today call Palestine. The arrangements are revealed with Joseph
seated separately, appropriately for his rank it can be presumed, the Egyptians
separately, and the brothers seated by eldest to youngest. Benjamin gets five
times as much food as the brothers did but it apparently doesn’t affect them.
They drank and were merry with Joseph.
A
mess from which we get “mess-kit” and
“mess hall” in old military terms also means a portion of food or a dish as in
a mess of meat. Just think of it as a
meal or as a specific dish in a meal as Nicholas Culpeper in his 1652 work ‘The
English Physician’ wrote a “mess of warm broth.”
2Samuel
11:8 And David said to Uriah, Go down to
thy house, and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the king’s house, and
there followed him a mess of meat
from the king.
Genesis,
chapter 44
Genesis
44:1 ¶ And he commanded the steward of
his house, saying, Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry,
and put every man’s money in his sack’s mouth. 2 And put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack’s
mouth of the youngest, and his corn money. And he did according to the word
that Joseph had spoken. 3 As soon as the
morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their asses. 4 And when they were gone out of the city, and
not yet far off, Joseph said unto his steward, Up, follow after the men; and
when thou dost overtake them, say unto them, Wherefore have ye rewarded evil
for good? 5 Is not this it in which my
lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth? ye have done evil in so doing.
6 And he overtook them, and he spake
unto them these same words. 7 And they said
unto him, Wherefore saith my lord these words? God forbid that thy servants
should do according to this thing: 8
Behold, the money, which we found in our sacks’ mouths, we brought again
unto thee out of the land of Canaan: how then should we steal out of thy lord’s
house silver or gold? 9 With whomsoever
of thy servants it be found, both let him die, and we also will be my lord’s
bondmen. 10 And he said, Now also let it
be according unto your words: he with whom it is found shall be my servant; and
ye shall be blameless. 11 Then they
speedily took down every man his sack to the ground, and opened every man his
sack. 12 And he searched, and began at
the eldest, and left at the youngest: and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.
13 Then they rent their clothes, and
laded every man his ass, and returned to the city. 14 And Judah and his brethren came to Joseph’s
house; for he was yet there: and they fell before him on the ground. 15 And Joseph said unto them, What deed is this
that ye have done? wot ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine?
16 And Judah said, What shall we say
unto my lord? what shall we speak? or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath
found out the iniquity of thy servants: behold, we are my lord’s servants, both
we, and he also with whom the cup is found. 17
And he said, God forbid that I should do so: but the man in whose hand
the cup is found, he shall be my servant; and as for you, get you up in peace
unto your father.
Joseph
sets the brothers up yet again for a shock by not only filling them with food
and wine and also giving them provisions for their return journey, but then
placing a special silver cup in the sack of Benjamin. All of the men’s money
was returned again to them.
This
silver cup, which it is said that Joseph used to drink from and to divine with
has some special significance. It was common for nobility in the ancient world
to use cups for the purposes of divining the will of the spiritual world.
Several sources attest to this. The same instrument used by the pagan was also
used by the people of God before the Law was given and after to divine God’s
will. As an example the casting of lots takes place many times to divine God’s
will because, unlike we today who believe heavily in randomness and luck based
on randomness, the ancients believed that there was a point to everything even
if humans were unable to discern it. Just type in the word lots in a computer concordance or look it up.
Divining
was used to try to understand that plan or the intention of spiritual entities;
gods, devils, and, in the sense of the people of God, His will. If you believe
that no flip of the coin results from chance and that God is in control of all
reality and events then this becomes easier to understand although its purpose
may be truly ungodly and an abomination based on intent. Judging from Joseph’s
character and his close relationship with God, being used by Him, I am
confident that Joseph was not seeking answers from devils, pagan entities, but
from God alone.
In
this bit of deception, as you read, Joseph accuses them of stealing his cup in
order to bring them back to him. Now, Joseph states that he is going to keep
Benjamin as a servant, even though Judah offered all of them as Joseph’s
servants, and they can go back to their father.
Genesis
44:18 ¶ Then Judah came near unto him,
and said, Oh my lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my lord’s
ears, and let not thine anger burn against thy servant: for thou art even as Pharaoh.
19 My lord asked his servants, saying,
Have ye a father, or a brother? 20 And
we said unto my lord, We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age,
a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and
his father loveth him. 21 And thou
saidst unto thy servants, Bring him down unto me, that I may set mine eyes upon
him. 22 And we said unto my lord, The
lad cannot leave his father: for if he should leave his father, his father
would die. 23 And thou saidst unto thy
servants, Except your youngest brother come down with you, ye shall see my face
no more. 24 And it came to pass when we
came up unto thy servant my father, we told him the words of my lord. 25 And our father said, Go again, and buy us a
little food. 26 And we said, We cannot
go down: if our youngest brother be with us, then will we go down: for we may
not see the man’s face, except our youngest brother be with us. 27 And thy servant my father said unto us, Ye
know that my wife bare me two sons: 28 And
the one went out from me, and I said, Surely he is torn in pieces; and I saw
him not since: 29 And if ye take this
also from me, and mischief befall him, ye shall bring down my gray hairs with
sorrow to the grave. 30 Now therefore
when I come to thy servant my father, and the lad be not with us; seeing that
his life is bound up in the lad’s life; 31
It shall come to pass, when he seeth that the lad is not with us, that
he will die: and thy servants shall bring down the gray hairs of thy servant
our father with sorrow to the grave. 32
For thy servant became surety for the lad unto my father, saying, If I
bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father for ever. 33 Now therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant
abide instead of the lad a bondman to my lord; and let the lad go up with his
brethren. 34 For how shall I go up to my
father, and the lad be not with me? lest peradventure I see the evil that shall
come on my father.
Judah
pleads for his father, that Benjamin not be kept as a servant but that Judah
take his place. He offered himself as surety for Benjamin’s safety, after all.
He implores this mighty Egyptian official, whom he does not know as his
brother, Joseph. Judah, who in 37:26 persuaded his brothers that, rather than
kill Joseph, they should sell him to the Ishmaelites, was instrumental in
Joseph having the opportunity to be the de facto ruler of Egypt’s internal
policies regarding the preparation and survival of this famine.
This
is a time of great tension and, as far as the brothers know, the fate of
Benjamin, their fate, and their father’s all hinge on this Egyptian official’s
sense of mercy. It is a time of desperation, fear, and anxiety. To them,
everything hinges on this official’s decision. Can you imagine how filled with
confusion and dread and apprehension they must be? I wonder if they imagined
how filled with confusion, fear, and apprehension Joseph must have been when he
was thrown in that pit and then sold by his own brothers as a slave to
traveling traders.
Genesis,
chapter 45
Genesis
45:1 ¶ Then Joseph could not refrain
himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go
out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known
unto his brethren. 2 And he wept aloud:
and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. 3 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am
Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for
they were troubled at his presence. 4
And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they
came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor
angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you
to preserve life. 6 For these two years
hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which
there shall neither be earing nor harvest. 7
And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and
to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8
So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me
a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the
land of Egypt. 9 Haste ye, and go up to
my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord
of all Egypt: come down unto me, tarry not: 10
And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto
me, thou, and thy children, and thy children’s children, and thy flocks, and
thy herds, and all that thou hast: 11
And there will I nourish thee; for yet there are five years of famine;
lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty. 12 And, behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of
my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you. 13 And ye shall tell my father of all my glory
in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen; and ye shall haste and bring down my
father hither. 14 And he fell upon his
brother Benjamin’s neck, and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck. 15 Moreover he kissed all his brethren, and wept
upon them: and after that his brethren talked with him.
Joseph
could no longer contain himself and he told his Egyptian staff to leave the
room. But, they could hear his emotional outcry to his brothers. It takes him a
bit to convince them that he is, indeed, Joseph their brother. The brothers are
dumbfounded. What they meant maliciously God turned to good. He does that with
human actions on a regular basis. People throughout history have done many
wicked things, often for power and profit, which God has permitted to be done
but used to put forth His own purpose such as Europe conquering the world and
enslaving millions by their will for power and profit yet God used their evil
desire to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and today faith in Christ is
growing at its greatest rate in the so-called third world with people of faith
in every part of the world. This does not make slavery and conquest less evil
and murderous but simply shows that, as with Joseph’s brothers actions God will
not let it go without using it in some way for His purpose.
Joseph
introduces himself to his brethren and could it be that the Jews in Israel in
the end of history learn of who Jesus really was and is in the same time frame?
Some preachers have noted that if there is a seven-year Tribulation at the end
of history, of which that last 3 ½ years is called the Great Tribulation, that
Jesus might make Himself known to the Jews in a special way 2 years into it.
Who can say? Prophecy revealed is not set up for us to gloat over a pretense of
smugly declaring how we know the future in detail but as a warning and for the
following reason.
John
14:29 And now I have told you before it
come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.
He
has already planned for them to live in the land of Goshen, which some say was
the area of northeastern Egypt where the Nile entered the Mediterranean Sea. It
was lush and fertile land and a place separate from the rest of the Egypt. Of
course, this is an assumption based on the conclusions of a 19th
century scholar, Henri Naville. We must be careful in accepting this. Goshen is
a word transliteration from a Hebrew word which may or may not have originated
from an Egyptian word. Goshen could be in northeastern Egypt or it could have
been elsewhere and drawing conclusions on lack of evidence is the bane of scholarship.
Let us say that it was a suitable place for herds and it is doubtful that the
Pharaoh would have imagined how numerous the Hebrews would become.
Genesis
45:16 ¶ And the fame thereof was heard
in Pharaoh’s house, saying, Joseph’s brethren are come: and it pleased Pharaoh
well, and his servants. 17 And Pharaoh
said unto Joseph, Say unto thy brethren, This do ye; lade your beasts, and go,
get you unto the land of Canaan; 18 And
take your father and your households, and come unto me: and I will give you the
good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land. 19 Now thou art commanded, this do ye; take you
wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and
bring your father, and come. 20 Also
regard not your stuff; for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours. 21 And the children of Israel did so: and Joseph
gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them
provision for the way. 22 To all of them
he gave each man changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred
pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment. 23 And to his father he sent after this manner;
ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she asses laden with corn
and bread and meat for his father by the way. 24 So he sent his brethren away, and they
departed: and he said unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way.
Word
of Joseph’s reunion with his brothers has now gotten around Pharaoh’s court.
This Pharaoh, a type of God the Father, is pleased and so are his servants,
probably his ministers, that this Saviour of the Egyptian people has been
blessed with this reunion. Pharaoh opens up his arms to offer a place of abode
for Joseph’s family. He orders Joseph to gather up his family in Canaan and bring
them back to Egypt. Everything that the Egyptians have his family will have. It
is a bold promise and one reason why I think this Pharaoh and his top officials
ethnically represent the Hyksos dynasty rather than native Egyptian, being more
sympathetic to foreigners from Canaan. So, now, a caravan heads back to Canaan
to get Jacob and the rest.
Remember
how when Rebekah watered Abraham’s servant’s ten camels and I talked about
typology in 24:10-28. Let me review for a moment.
“For
one example of prophetic interpretation, the phrase And God said is repeated ten times in the first chapter of Genesis.
Perhaps, in symbolic, typology these ten camels, brought by a type of the Holy
Ghost to a type of God’s church represent God’s word in Abraham, a type of God the
Father, sending the Holy Ghost to gather His church for Christ, who in type is
Isaac, already sacrificed in type and resurrected in type, based on how the
church responds to the words of God. What is happening here is then telling us
in shadow what has happened in the spiritual world since before creation.
Ephesians
1:4 According as he hath chosen us in
him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
The
part played by the bride-to-be for Isaac, the church for Christ, is laid out by
the servant of Abraham, or the Holy Ghost, as one who when approached by the
Holy Ghost, responds. The Holy Ghost makes the truth of the gospel brought by
the Holy Ghost on ten camels, in a manner of speaking, representing what God
has said, apparent and the bride-to-be responds. The bride for Isaac waters the
camels as the church glorifies the gospel of Christ by its response to that
gospel, confirming that the church is indeed chosen, but chosen by her response.
Below, Paul expresses his wish to present the church as pure to Christ as His
bride.
2Corinthians
11:2 For I am jealous over you with
godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you
as a chaste virgin to Christ.
And
this marriage will be complete at the end of human history.
Revelation
19:9 And he saith unto me, Write,
Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he
saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.”
Back
to this passage of Scripture, Ten represents
many things, particularly God’s order and what He said, His words. Here, a type
of Christ, Joseph, is sending by order of a type of God the Father, Pharaoh,
provisions in numbers of ten to take back to nourish God’s people with the
intent purpose of drawing them, bringing them to Egypt, which is here a type of
Heaven. Heaven clearly is the end habitation of God’s people but He does not
leave them without spiritual nourishment in the meantime in the period before
their return. Of course, there are many much better sermons that can be taken
from this one passage as with all.
Numbers
like three hundred and five have great significance in the rest
of the Bible and there are many opinions as to what they signify. But
numerology is always a risky business and almost always a matter of opinion.
You see a number and then start looking for its application in all sorts of
ways, some clear from the text and others a total stretch. Be careful how you
represent God and remember that Job’s three friends were criticized, not for
lying in every particular as many of the things they said were true, but for
misrepresenting God’s reasons and intentions, which they had no way of knowing.
Corn
and bread and meat also might have a significance as three types of nourishment;
one natural and raw, one prepared by human hands, and one as the general
reference for food in the Bible. Could these refer to corn as God’s word in its raw form from the pages of the Bible, bread as God’s word interpreted by a human
with the help of the Holy Spirit, and meat
as the deepest and true doctrine that God’s word provides for us. I am sure
there are other possibilities as well regarding the spiritual nourishment God’s
food provides.
Job
34:3 For the ear trieth words, as the
mouth tasteth meat.
Genesis
45:25 ¶ And they went up out of Egypt,
and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father, 26 And told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive,
and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob’s heart fainted, for
he believed them not. 27 And they told
him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them: and when he saw the
wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father
revived: 28 And Israel said, It is
enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.
Jacob,
who is Israel, remember, is astonished and skeptical of the news that not only
is Joseph alive but is governor over Egypt. You would be, too. The caravan that
Joseph helped him believe, though. Again, we have many potential sermons from
this about the joy Israel will know in the Great Tribulation to come when
Christ reveals Himself in a supernatural way to them. But, read the Book of the
Revelation of Jesus Christ and consider these typologies as you do.
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